The commander of Lviv's Berkut and his subordinate will be tried for organizing a terrorist attack and killing protesters during the Revolution of Dignity on February 18, 2014, the Prosecutor General's Office said on Wednesday, UNN reports.
Details
"...sent to court an indictment against the commander of the Berkut special police battalion of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Lviv region and the assistant chief of staff of this unit on the circumstances of organizing illegal obstruction of protests on February 18, 2014 in the central part of Kyiv," the statement reads.
The investigation established that the commander of the Lviv Berkut, with the assistance of his subordinate, the assistant chief of staff, "executing a clearly criminal order from the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv, organized the commission of a terrorist act and the premeditated murder of protesters by his subordinate officers".
"For this purpose, the former law enforcement officer ensured indiscriminate use of special means and firearms, including those equipped with lead bullets and buckshot, by subordinate officers of the Berkut police without appropriate grounds and in violation of the current legislation," the prosecutor's office said.
This allegedly resulted in the killing of 3 protesters, the infliction of severe bodily injuries on 5, moderate bodily injuries on 43, and light bodily injuries on 77.
"After that, the accused organized the appropriation of firearms to conceal their use on February 18, 2014 by subordinate officers of the special forces," the Prosecutor General's Office said.
As noted, the former special forces commander worked in the law enforcement agencies of Russia and, having the citizenship of the aggressor country, fraudulently acquired the citizenship of Ukraine, which he was eventually deprived of.
The Berkut officers are charged under a number of articles of the Criminal Code, including Article 115 (premeditated murder) and Article 258 (terrorist attack) of the Criminal Code. The former Berkut officers have been in custody since 2023 on the basis of court decisions.
Addendum
As of now, according to the Office of the Prosecutor General, a number of heads of internal affairs agencies who directly organized the crimes, including the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, his deputy, the leadership of the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv, as well as perpetrators from the Berkut police force, have been brought to criminal responsibility for these events.