Ukraine Peace Deal: Ceasefire Starting February 15, Removal of Heavy Weapons
February 12, 2015 09:08
Rt.com
An agreement has been brokered in Minsk to stop hostilities in Ukraine from Sunday. The deal was reached after marathon talks between the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, and signed by the Ukrainian rebels.
“I believe we agreed on a big deal. We agreed to a ceasefire starting at 00:00 on February 15,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told the media after the talks were finished.
"The main thing achieved is that from Saturday into Sunday there should be declared - without any conditions at all - a general ceasefire," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told journalists in a separate statement.
Pullout compromise
A compromise decision was taken over the disengagement line, which was the biggest stumbling block in the negotiation. According to the document, Kiev’s troops would pull back heavy weapons from the current frontline. The rebels would pull back from the line as it existed in September, when the previous ceasefire agreement was signed.
The security zone separating the warring parties must be at least 50km wide for artillery over 100mm caliber, 70km for regular multiple rocket launchers and 100km for heavier weapons with a longer range, such as Tochka-U ballistic missiles, the document states.
The weapons pullout must start on Sunday and be completed in no longer than 14 days. The OSCE is charged with implementing the ceasefire on the ground and will use its drone fleet and monitors to verify that both parties are sticking to the deal.
The ceasefire deal provides for withdrawal of all "foreign troops, heavy weapons and mercenaries" from Ukraine under an OSCE monitoring. "Illegal armed groups" would be disarmed, but local authorities in the future would be allowed to have legal militia units.
The agreement involves exchange of all prisoners, which is to be completed within 19 days. A general amnesty for the rebels would be declared by Kiev.
The national government’s control over the borders between Donetsk and Lugansk Regions would be fully restored a day after municipal elections, which would be held in the regions as part of a profound constitutional reform.
Decentralization reform
The agreement requires a political reform in Ukraine to ensure decentralization and a special status for its rebel provinces. It requires Ukraine to adopt legislation which would provide permanent privileges to the Lugansk and Donetsk Regions, currently self-declared republics, by the end of 2015.
The legislation would include the right for language self-determination and trans-border ties with Russia, as well as the authority of the local governments to appoint local prosecutors and judges, the document states.
Humanitarian and economic issues are also mentioned in the deal. Kiev would restore economic ties and social payments, which it cut in rebel-held areas, the document says. An international monitoring mechanism may be established for these payments.
During the transition period an internationally-monitored mechanism for humanitarian aid to the regions affected by the war would be implemented, the document sates.
Direct talks needed
Putin said that Kiev’s unwillingness to hold direct talks with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics was among the reasons it took so much time to reach an agreement.
“They may be unrecognized, but we have to deal with real life here, and if everyone wants to agree and have sustainable relations, direct contacts are needed,” Putin said.
He added that the ‘Normandy Four’ expect the parties involved in the conflict to show restraint even in the days before the ceasefire takes effect.
The terms of the ceasefire are spelled out in a document signed by members of the so-called contact group, which includes representatives from the rebel forces, Kiev, Moscow and the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe, Putin said.
The members of the ‘Normandy Four’ – Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande – supported a joint declaration describing the results of their work.
The declaration was not meant to be signed by the leaders, Germany FM Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
If broken, no new memorandum possible
Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic Aleksandr Zakharchenko, who signed the Minsk document, said it required additional consultation and warned that “if these terms are broken, there will be no new meetings or memoranda.”
He added that he and Igor Plotnitsky, the head of Lugansk People’s Republic, agreed to sign the document “due to guarantees from the president of Russia, chancellor of Germany and president of France,” with the hope that it would allow their people to “achieve peaceful development.”
The new Minsk accord gives hope for de-escalation of the Ukrainian conflict, although it would require a major effort to build trust between the parties involved. The previous deal collapsed as neither Kiev nor the rebels implemented it fully, which means the threat of renewed hostilities in Ukraine continue to loom.
Restrained optimism follows Minsk summit, new Russia sanctions off table?
February 12, 2015 12:31
The ceasefire deal brokered by the so-called Normandy Four in Minsk has offered a “glimmer of hope” that the bloodshed in Ukraine can be halted and mend strained relations between Russia and the West.
The deal was reached following marathon overnight negotiations in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, which Russian President Vladimir Putin described as being "not the best night of my life.”
Reactions to the ceasefire deal in eastern Ukraine, which will come into effect at 12am local time on February 15, were measured but hopeful.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert reflected this sentiment on Twitter after the deal was struck.
"After 17 hours, negotiations in Minsk have finished: ceasefire from Feb. 15 at zero hours, then withdrawal of heavy weapons. Therein lies hope," he tweeted.
Merkel also credited Putin for “putting pressure” on rebels in eastern Ukraine to agree to the ceasefire in a conflict which has claimed more than 5,400 lives in under a year’s time.
She further credited Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for doing “everything to achieve the possibility of an end to the bloodshed.”
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier responded in a similar vein, saying that while the summit was not exactly a breakthrough, it should “steer everyone away from the path of escalation” in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region.
"The most important thing is that Moscow and Kiev agreed on a ceasefire... we strengthened the Minsk accords of last September," Steinmeier said in a statement.
"For some this will not be enough. We also would have wished for more - but this is what the presidents of Ukraine and Russia could agree on."
French President François Hollande was more upbeat, calling the deal a "comprehensive political solution" which would engender "serious hope, even if everything is not done."
"All matters are addressed by this document," Hollande told journalists in regards to the agreement.
“The agreement regarding Ukraine in Minsk shows that we are on the right path,” Hollande said.
He added, however, that there were no guarantees regarding the long-term success of the agreement.
“The next few hours will be crucial for the agreement on Ukraine.”
President of the European Council Donald Tusk also tweeted that Thursday’s agreement “gives hope” in the run-up to an informal meeting of the members of the European Council on Thursday.
“Hope is important, essential, but not enough. Real test is respect of cease-fire on the ground Ukraine,” he wrote.
He added that the situation in Ukraine and relations with Russia would be one of three major issues discussed at the meeting.
Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland has voiced his positive impressions of the progress made in Minsk. He said in a statement that a concrete basis for implementing the ceasefire has been set up. He also expressed hope for the constitutional reform that is to follow, and that it would respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz has also joined the chorus of those welcoming the signing of the ceasefire agreement in Minsk, though with the caution which has typified reaction to the deal.
“Welcome Hollande-Merkel brokered ceasefire agreement in Minsk on Ukraine. All sides must now abide by agreement, turn words into actions,” he tweeted.
Sanctions off the table? Not yet
Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb, who was not a party to the negotiations, cautiously offered his praise for the deal.
“The ceasefire is great news; however we should see how it will be implemented. People should no longer be killed; heavy weapons should be withdrawn,” he said.
Speaking from Brussels, where an EU summit is set to be held on Thursday, Stubb offered hope that a thaw in relations with Moscow could be on the table.
According to Stubb, if Merkel and Hollande are satisfied with the outcome of the Minsk talks, the EU will not discuss further sanctions against Russia.
“If they say that the talks have failed, sanctions will ensue,” he added.
Vice-President of the EU Commission Federica Mogherini also said new sanctions against Russia were unlikely to be discussed at Thursday’s meeting, which was postponed by several hours due to the Minsk talks.
"I don't think today we will discuss sanctions," Mogherini told reporters. Rather, she said the talks would center on how “all possible EU means” can be activated to help sustain the ceasefire deal once it goes into effect.
British Prime Minister David Cameron maintained a tougher line, saying he welcomed the second Minsk agreement, but added “Putin has to know sanctions will remain in place without concrete progress on the ground.”
Lithuania President, Dalia Grybauskaite, however, said that the issue of actually changing the current EU sanctions regime against the Russian Federation would not be discussed until March.
However, some representatives of the German business community consider the latest agreement to be a possible precursor for the lifting of sanctions on Russia. “The result achieved in Minsk could be a second step to opening the road to gradually lifting anti-Russian sanctions,” Eckhard Cordes, Chairman of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, told DPA.
A far more contentious issue on whether or not to send lethal defense arms to Kiev is also likely to be struck form the agenda in Brussels, Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxemburg, said.
Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Lamberto Zannier, said the outcome of the meeting in Minsk was “important and necessary,” adding that it would contribute to “stabilization and peace in Ukraine.”
Speaking from the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk, he said that the outcome of the summit could have an impact on the current mandate and timeframe of the OSCE’s current monitoring mission in the country.
BBC airs Maidan fighter admitting he fired on police before Kiev massacre
February 12, 2015 16:25
Nearly a year after the massacre on Kiev's Maidan left over 50 dead, the BBC has aired footage of an opposition fighter who says he fired at police in the early morning that day, bringing into question the popular narrative that riot police fired first.
"I was shooting downward at their feet," says a man the broadcaster decided to identify as Sergei.
"Of course, I could have hit them in the arm or anywhere. But I didn't shoot to kill."
According to Sergei, he took up a position in the Kiev Conservatory, a music academy located on the southwest corner of Kiev’s Independence Square, on February 20.
One day prior, he had met up with a man who offered him two guns. The first was a 12-gauge shotgun, while the other was a hunting rifle – a Saiga that fired high-velocity rounds.
He chose the Saiga and hid it at a post office that, along with the conservatory, was under the protesters’ control. Sergei told the BBC he was later escorted to the Conservatory, where, with a second gunman, he spent 20 minutes before 7:00 am firing on police.
Other witness testimony has corroborated his account.
Andriy Shevchenko, who was an opposition MP at the time and also part of the Maidan movement, said he had received a phone call from the head of the riot police on Maidan Square claiming his officers had come under fire.
"He calls me and says, 'Andriy, somebody is shooting at my guys.' And he said that the shooting was from the Conservatory," Shevchenko said.
Shevchenko, in turn, says he contacted Andriy Parubiy, who headed up security for the protesters and was known as the Commandant of Maidan.
It’s at this point where the details of what followed become murky.
Parubiy says he sent a group of “his best men” to scour the Conservatory and determine if anyone was firing from it. Parubiy, who now serves as deputy speaker in the current Ukrainian parliament, claims his men found no gunmen in the building.
A photographer who had gained access to the Conservatory later in the morning just after 8:00 am, however, took pictures of men with guns in the building, though he never saw them discharge their weapons.
All the while, Shevchenko claims he was getting increasingly panicked calls from the head of the riot police, who said that five officers had been wounded and another killed before he decided to pull out.
Sergei's account appears to contradict Parubiy’s.
"I was just reloading," Sergei told the BBC. "They ran up to me and one put his foot on top of me, and said, 'They want a word with you, everything is OK, but stop doing what you're doing.'"
Sergei says he was convinced the men who dragged him away were from Parubiy’s security unit, though he admits he did not recognize their faces. After being taken out of the building, he was dropped off outside of Kiev by car, though it appears no further harm came to him.
By this point, the BBC notes that three policemen had been wounded fatally and the mass killings began that ultimately left more than 50 protesters dead.
Snipers on Maidan: unsolved mystery
February 20 was the bloodiest day of protests since they started in November 2013, and the bloodshed ultimately led to the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. Both sides have blamed each other for being behind the sniper fire that brought the Euromaidan revolution to a head.
RT's Aleksey Yaroshevsky, who was reporting form the scene that day, came under fire from unidentified gunmen at the time.
Witnesses at the time said they saw snipers shooting at both protesters and security forces.
A leaked recording of a conversation between European Union foreign policy Baroness Caroline Ashton and Estonia’s foreign minister, Urmas Paet, also appeared to confirm the possibly that it had been members of the opposition, and not Yanukovich’s security forces, who fired the first shots.
“There is a stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers – it was not Yanukovich, it was somebody from the new [ruling] coalition,” Paet told Ashton, citing claims that “there were the same snipers killing people from both sides.”
Ukraine’s former State Security chief, Oleksandr Yakymenko, would also blame Ukraine's current Euromaidan government, saying they hired the snipers who precipitated violence on the square.
The protest leaders, many of whom hold positions in the current Ukrainian government, insist that Yanukovich and his security forces bear full responsibility for the shootings.
In April, almost two months after the shooting, Ukrainian prosecutors arrested several Berkut riot police officers as possible “Maidan snipers.”
The investigation, however, seems to have ended there.
In October, Reuters published the results of its examination, which analyzed Kiev’s probe into February’s Maidan shootings.
The news agency’s reporters uncovered “serious flaws” in the case against Berkut officers. Dozens of families of Maidan victims are still demanding "an objective and accurate investigation."
Rt.com
An agreement has been brokered in Minsk to stop hostilities in Ukraine from Sunday. The deal was reached after marathon talks between the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, and signed by the Ukrainian rebels.
“I believe we agreed on a big deal. We agreed to a ceasefire starting at 00:00 on February 15,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told the media after the talks were finished.
"The main thing achieved is that from Saturday into Sunday there should be declared - without any conditions at all - a general ceasefire," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told journalists in a separate statement.
Pullout compromise
A compromise decision was taken over the disengagement line, which was the biggest stumbling block in the negotiation. According to the document, Kiev’s troops would pull back heavy weapons from the current frontline. The rebels would pull back from the line as it existed in September, when the previous ceasefire agreement was signed.
The security zone separating the warring parties must be at least 50km wide for artillery over 100mm caliber, 70km for regular multiple rocket launchers and 100km for heavier weapons with a longer range, such as Tochka-U ballistic missiles, the document states.
The weapons pullout must start on Sunday and be completed in no longer than 14 days. The OSCE is charged with implementing the ceasefire on the ground and will use its drone fleet and monitors to verify that both parties are sticking to the deal.
The ceasefire deal provides for withdrawal of all "foreign troops, heavy weapons and mercenaries" from Ukraine under an OSCE monitoring. "Illegal armed groups" would be disarmed, but local authorities in the future would be allowed to have legal militia units.
The agreement involves exchange of all prisoners, which is to be completed within 19 days. A general amnesty for the rebels would be declared by Kiev.
The national government’s control over the borders between Donetsk and Lugansk Regions would be fully restored a day after municipal elections, which would be held in the regions as part of a profound constitutional reform.
Decentralization reform
The agreement requires a political reform in Ukraine to ensure decentralization and a special status for its rebel provinces. It requires Ukraine to adopt legislation which would provide permanent privileges to the Lugansk and Donetsk Regions, currently self-declared republics, by the end of 2015.
The legislation would include the right for language self-determination and trans-border ties with Russia, as well as the authority of the local governments to appoint local prosecutors and judges, the document states.
Humanitarian and economic issues are also mentioned in the deal. Kiev would restore economic ties and social payments, which it cut in rebel-held areas, the document says. An international monitoring mechanism may be established for these payments.
During the transition period an internationally-monitored mechanism for humanitarian aid to the regions affected by the war would be implemented, the document sates.
Direct talks needed
Putin said that Kiev’s unwillingness to hold direct talks with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics was among the reasons it took so much time to reach an agreement.
“They may be unrecognized, but we have to deal with real life here, and if everyone wants to agree and have sustainable relations, direct contacts are needed,” Putin said.
He added that the ‘Normandy Four’ expect the parties involved in the conflict to show restraint even in the days before the ceasefire takes effect.
The terms of the ceasefire are spelled out in a document signed by members of the so-called contact group, which includes representatives from the rebel forces, Kiev, Moscow and the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe, Putin said.
The members of the ‘Normandy Four’ – Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande – supported a joint declaration describing the results of their work.
The declaration was not meant to be signed by the leaders, Germany FM Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
If broken, no new memorandum possible
Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic Aleksandr Zakharchenko, who signed the Minsk document, said it required additional consultation and warned that “if these terms are broken, there will be no new meetings or memoranda.”
He added that he and Igor Plotnitsky, the head of Lugansk People’s Republic, agreed to sign the document “due to guarantees from the president of Russia, chancellor of Germany and president of France,” with the hope that it would allow their people to “achieve peaceful development.”
The new Minsk accord gives hope for de-escalation of the Ukrainian conflict, although it would require a major effort to build trust between the parties involved. The previous deal collapsed as neither Kiev nor the rebels implemented it fully, which means the threat of renewed hostilities in Ukraine continue to loom.
Restrained optimism follows Minsk summit, new Russia sanctions off table?
February 12, 2015 12:31
The ceasefire deal brokered by the so-called Normandy Four in Minsk has offered a “glimmer of hope” that the bloodshed in Ukraine can be halted and mend strained relations between Russia and the West.
The deal was reached following marathon overnight negotiations in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, which Russian President Vladimir Putin described as being "not the best night of my life.”
Reactions to the ceasefire deal in eastern Ukraine, which will come into effect at 12am local time on February 15, were measured but hopeful.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert reflected this sentiment on Twitter after the deal was struck.
"After 17 hours, negotiations in Minsk have finished: ceasefire from Feb. 15 at zero hours, then withdrawal of heavy weapons. Therein lies hope," he tweeted.
Merkel also credited Putin for “putting pressure” on rebels in eastern Ukraine to agree to the ceasefire in a conflict which has claimed more than 5,400 lives in under a year’s time.
She further credited Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for doing “everything to achieve the possibility of an end to the bloodshed.”
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier responded in a similar vein, saying that while the summit was not exactly a breakthrough, it should “steer everyone away from the path of escalation” in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region.
"The most important thing is that Moscow and Kiev agreed on a ceasefire... we strengthened the Minsk accords of last September," Steinmeier said in a statement.
"For some this will not be enough. We also would have wished for more - but this is what the presidents of Ukraine and Russia could agree on."
French President François Hollande was more upbeat, calling the deal a "comprehensive political solution" which would engender "serious hope, even if everything is not done."
"All matters are addressed by this document," Hollande told journalists in regards to the agreement.
“The agreement regarding Ukraine in Minsk shows that we are on the right path,” Hollande said.
He added, however, that there were no guarantees regarding the long-term success of the agreement.
“The next few hours will be crucial for the agreement on Ukraine.”
President of the European Council Donald Tusk also tweeted that Thursday’s agreement “gives hope” in the run-up to an informal meeting of the members of the European Council on Thursday.
“Hope is important, essential, but not enough. Real test is respect of cease-fire on the ground Ukraine,” he wrote.
He added that the situation in Ukraine and relations with Russia would be one of three major issues discussed at the meeting.
Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland has voiced his positive impressions of the progress made in Minsk. He said in a statement that a concrete basis for implementing the ceasefire has been set up. He also expressed hope for the constitutional reform that is to follow, and that it would respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz has also joined the chorus of those welcoming the signing of the ceasefire agreement in Minsk, though with the caution which has typified reaction to the deal.
“Welcome Hollande-Merkel brokered ceasefire agreement in Minsk on Ukraine. All sides must now abide by agreement, turn words into actions,” he tweeted.
Sanctions off the table? Not yet
Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb, who was not a party to the negotiations, cautiously offered his praise for the deal.
“The ceasefire is great news; however we should see how it will be implemented. People should no longer be killed; heavy weapons should be withdrawn,” he said.
Speaking from Brussels, where an EU summit is set to be held on Thursday, Stubb offered hope that a thaw in relations with Moscow could be on the table.
According to Stubb, if Merkel and Hollande are satisfied with the outcome of the Minsk talks, the EU will not discuss further sanctions against Russia.
“If they say that the talks have failed, sanctions will ensue,” he added.
Vice-President of the EU Commission Federica Mogherini also said new sanctions against Russia were unlikely to be discussed at Thursday’s meeting, which was postponed by several hours due to the Minsk talks.
"I don't think today we will discuss sanctions," Mogherini told reporters. Rather, she said the talks would center on how “all possible EU means” can be activated to help sustain the ceasefire deal once it goes into effect.
British Prime Minister David Cameron maintained a tougher line, saying he welcomed the second Minsk agreement, but added “Putin has to know sanctions will remain in place without concrete progress on the ground.”
Lithuania President, Dalia Grybauskaite, however, said that the issue of actually changing the current EU sanctions regime against the Russian Federation would not be discussed until March.
However, some representatives of the German business community consider the latest agreement to be a possible precursor for the lifting of sanctions on Russia. “The result achieved in Minsk could be a second step to opening the road to gradually lifting anti-Russian sanctions,” Eckhard Cordes, Chairman of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, told DPA.
A far more contentious issue on whether or not to send lethal defense arms to Kiev is also likely to be struck form the agenda in Brussels, Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxemburg, said.
Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Lamberto Zannier, said the outcome of the meeting in Minsk was “important and necessary,” adding that it would contribute to “stabilization and peace in Ukraine.”
Speaking from the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk, he said that the outcome of the summit could have an impact on the current mandate and timeframe of the OSCE’s current monitoring mission in the country.
BBC airs Maidan fighter admitting he fired on police before Kiev massacre
February 12, 2015 16:25
Nearly a year after the massacre on Kiev's Maidan left over 50 dead, the BBC has aired footage of an opposition fighter who says he fired at police in the early morning that day, bringing into question the popular narrative that riot police fired first.
"I was shooting downward at their feet," says a man the broadcaster decided to identify as Sergei.
"Of course, I could have hit them in the arm or anywhere. But I didn't shoot to kill."
According to Sergei, he took up a position in the Kiev Conservatory, a music academy located on the southwest corner of Kiev’s Independence Square, on February 20.
One day prior, he had met up with a man who offered him two guns. The first was a 12-gauge shotgun, while the other was a hunting rifle – a Saiga that fired high-velocity rounds.
He chose the Saiga and hid it at a post office that, along with the conservatory, was under the protesters’ control. Sergei told the BBC he was later escorted to the Conservatory, where, with a second gunman, he spent 20 minutes before 7:00 am firing on police.
Other witness testimony has corroborated his account.
Andriy Shevchenko, who was an opposition MP at the time and also part of the Maidan movement, said he had received a phone call from the head of the riot police on Maidan Square claiming his officers had come under fire.
"He calls me and says, 'Andriy, somebody is shooting at my guys.' And he said that the shooting was from the Conservatory," Shevchenko said.
Shevchenko, in turn, says he contacted Andriy Parubiy, who headed up security for the protesters and was known as the Commandant of Maidan.
It’s at this point where the details of what followed become murky.
Parubiy says he sent a group of “his best men” to scour the Conservatory and determine if anyone was firing from it. Parubiy, who now serves as deputy speaker in the current Ukrainian parliament, claims his men found no gunmen in the building.
A photographer who had gained access to the Conservatory later in the morning just after 8:00 am, however, took pictures of men with guns in the building, though he never saw them discharge their weapons.
All the while, Shevchenko claims he was getting increasingly panicked calls from the head of the riot police, who said that five officers had been wounded and another killed before he decided to pull out.
Sergei's account appears to contradict Parubiy’s.
"I was just reloading," Sergei told the BBC. "They ran up to me and one put his foot on top of me, and said, 'They want a word with you, everything is OK, but stop doing what you're doing.'"
Sergei says he was convinced the men who dragged him away were from Parubiy’s security unit, though he admits he did not recognize their faces. After being taken out of the building, he was dropped off outside of Kiev by car, though it appears no further harm came to him.
By this point, the BBC notes that three policemen had been wounded fatally and the mass killings began that ultimately left more than 50 protesters dead.
Snipers on Maidan: unsolved mystery
February 20 was the bloodiest day of protests since they started in November 2013, and the bloodshed ultimately led to the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. Both sides have blamed each other for being behind the sniper fire that brought the Euromaidan revolution to a head.
RT's Aleksey Yaroshevsky, who was reporting form the scene that day, came under fire from unidentified gunmen at the time.
Witnesses at the time said they saw snipers shooting at both protesters and security forces.
A leaked recording of a conversation between European Union foreign policy Baroness Caroline Ashton and Estonia’s foreign minister, Urmas Paet, also appeared to confirm the possibly that it had been members of the opposition, and not Yanukovich’s security forces, who fired the first shots.
“There is a stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers – it was not Yanukovich, it was somebody from the new [ruling] coalition,” Paet told Ashton, citing claims that “there were the same snipers killing people from both sides.”
Ukraine’s former State Security chief, Oleksandr Yakymenko, would also blame Ukraine's current Euromaidan government, saying they hired the snipers who precipitated violence on the square.
The protest leaders, many of whom hold positions in the current Ukrainian government, insist that Yanukovich and his security forces bear full responsibility for the shootings.
In April, almost two months after the shooting, Ukrainian prosecutors arrested several Berkut riot police officers as possible “Maidan snipers.”
The investigation, however, seems to have ended there.
In October, Reuters published the results of its examination, which analyzed Kiev’s probe into February’s Maidan shootings.
The news agency’s reporters uncovered “serious flaws” in the case against Berkut officers. Dozens of families of Maidan victims are still demanding "an objective and accurate investigation."
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