For me not surprising, in new developments the prosecution case in the event of downing the MH-17, it appears evidence provided by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is considered tainted and/or unreliable. This will delay the criminal investigation also because of a number of corruption cases inside the SBU. I will make a follow-up later as I came across this study about the Maidan massacre I has blogged about as it took place in February 2014.
○ Dutch PM Rutte Abruptly Calls-off MH-17 Recovery Mission – see all diaries linked to MH-17 here
Ex-Ukrainian Spy Chief: Russian Camps Spreading Chaos | VOA |
Ukraine’s former intelligence chief says Russia is financing and organizing training camps from within Ukraine’s rebel-controlled eastern provinces in order to destabilize the country.
“Up to 30 camps in Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea are training subversive groups, providing them with weapons and sending them on missions throughout Ukraine,” said Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, who ran the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), the country’s successor to the Soviet-era KGB, until his forced resignation last month.
“Local criminal gangs and separatists, together with Russian active duty troops, are all committing war crimes and violating international law inside Ukraine,” Nalyvaichenko said. “That’s what we mean by Russian aggression.”
Ukraine split
Nalyvaichenko’s comments come as a former high-ranking U.S. official said the Minsk accords – a cease-fire deal negotiated in February – had effectively split Ukraine in two.
“This is a partition of Ukraine, imposed by France, Germany and Russia, where you have an eastern part run by
separatists, [to which] Ukrainian authorities are forbidden to go – and this division is overseen by the OSCE,”
said Kurt Volker, who served as U.S. ambassador to NATO under George W. Bush.He predicted that Russia could step up its military activities in Ukraine: “Russia will continue, piecemeal, to push buttons inside Ukraine.”
“The Russians could try to take more territory in the corridor connecting eastern Ukraine to Crimea through Mariupol,” Volker said.
The “Snipers’ Massacre” on the Maidan in Ukraine [pdf - report length 79 pages]
By Ivan Katchanovski, Ph.D.
School of Political Studies University of OttawaAbstract
The massacre of almost 50 Maidan protesters on February 20, 2014 was a turning point in Ukrainian politics and a tipping point in the conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. This mass killing of the protesters and the mass shooting of the police that preceded it led to the overthrow of the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych and gave a start to a civil war in Donbas in Eastern Ukraine, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. A conclusion promoted by the post-Yanukovych governments and the media in Ukraine that the massacre was perpetrated by government snipers and special police units on a Yanukovych order has been nearly universally accepted by the Western governments, the media, and many scholars. The Ukrainian government investigation identified members of the special company of Berkut as responsible for killings of the absolute majority of the protesters, but did not release any evidence in support, with the exception of videos of the massacre.
The question is which side organized the “snipers’ massacre.” This paper is the first academic study of this crucial case of the mass killing. It uses a theory of rational choice and a Weberian theory of instrumental rationality to examine actions of major actors both from the Yanukovych government, specifically various police and security forces, and the Maidan opposition, specifically its far right and oligarchic elements, during the massacre.
The paper analyzes a large amount of evidence from different publicly available sources concerning this massacre and killings of specifics protestors. Qualitative content analysis includes the following data: about 1,500 videos and recordings of live internet and TV broadcasts in mass media and social media in different countries (some 150 gigabytes), news reports and social media posts by more than 100 journalists covering the massacre from Kyiv, some 5,000 photos, and nearly 30 gigabytes of publicly available radio intercepts of snipers and commanders from the special Alfa unit of the Security Service of Ukraine and Internal Troops, and Maidan massacre trial recordings. This study also employs field research on site of the massacre, eyewitness reports by both Maidan protesters and government special units commanders, statements by both former and current government officials, estimates of approximate ballistic trajectories, bullets and weapons used, and types of wounds among both protesters and the police. This study establishes a precise timeline for various events of the massacre, the locations of both the shooters and the government snipers, and the specific timeline and locations of nearly 50 protesters’ deaths. It also briefly analyzes other major cases of violence during and after the “Euromaidan.”
This academic investigation concludes that the massacre was a false flag operation, which was rationally planned and carried out with a goal of the overthrow of the government and seizure of power. It found various evidence of the involvement of an alliance of the far right organizations, specifically the Right Sector and Svoboda, and oligarchic parties, such as Fatherland. Concealed shooters and spotters were located in at least 20 Maidan-controlled buildings or areas. The various evidence that the protesters were killed from these locations include some 70 testimonies, primarily by Maidan protesters, several videos of “snipers” targeting protesters from these buildings, comparisons of positions of the specific protesters at the time of their killing and their entry wounds, and bullet impact signs. The study uncovered various videos and photos of armed Maidan “snipers” and spotters in many of these buildings. The paper presents implications of these findings for understanding the nature of the change of the government in Ukraine, the civil war in Donbas, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine.
Ukraine Between the Maidan and Western Europe
In speaking to friends in L’viv and Kyiv, not a single one doubts the possibility that a small and unrepresentative number of far-right thugs may have perpetrated a limited number of atrocities on the Maidan. Moreover, a report by the International Advisory Panel, set up by the Council of Europe, presented evidence corroborating the conclusions of Katchanovski’s study–including accusations that the Ukrainian investigation of the “snipers’ massacre” on the Maidan was deliberately and systematically falsified and stonewalled at the highest level in Ukraine, in particular by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General office, as a part of the cover-up.
The International Advisory Panel (“the IAP” or “the Panel”) was established by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in April 2014, with the role of overseeing that the investigations of the violent incidents which had taken place in Ukraine from 30 November 2013 onwards met all the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights (“the Convention”) and the caselaw of the European Court of Human Rights (“the European Court”). The members of the Panel are Sir Nicolas Bratza (Chair), a former President of the European Court, Mr Volodymyr Butkevych, a former Judge of the European Court and Mr Oleg Anpilogov, a former prosecutor of Ukraine.
Revelations in the Maidan Massacre trial in Ukraine go unreported in the west
The list of the 39 protesters whose killing the prosecution attributed to Berkut was only released nearly one and a half years after the massacre. The killings of the other 10 protesters were simply omitted from the charges, even though 8 of them were shot dead at the same time and place as these 39 protesters. The special Council of Europe investigative panel reported that the Ukrainian investigation had evidence that ten protesters were killed by “snipers” from top of the buildings, but that investigation did not found any evidence that these were snipers from the Security Service of Ukraine Alf unit and other government units. [See here for an April 2015 news report. And here is the 188-page report of the panel, dated March 31, 2015.]
The omitted list confirmed information that the investigation omitted the killings of Oleh Unshnevych, Evhen Kotliar, Ustym Holodniuk and Oleksander Kharchenko because of clear evidence they were killed from the Maidan-controlled locations, such as Hotel Ukraina. In addition, the prosecution charges also omitted the killings of Vasyl Aksenyn, Vladyslav Zubenko, Volodymyr Chaplynsky and Volodymyr Melnychuk. My study presents various evidence that these protesters were also killed from the Maidan-controlled buildings, mostly Hotel Ukraina, starting from about 9:18am till almost 5pm. For instance, the much publicized Zelenyi Front video shows at 10:26am (32:13) that Chaplynsky was shot dead when he was running away from the massacre area: video. A Spline TV recording of its live broadcast, which is now removed from a list of its videos on the Internet, shows sparks flying from the Hotel Ukraina when a loud gunshot killed this protestor. Zubenko was killed in the same area at 9:49am, reportedly with a 5.45 caliber bullet.
The prosecution charges confirmed earlier reports that the investigation did not find specific evidence linking specific Berkut members to specific killed protesters. But these charges also revealed that the prosecution did not specify the exact time of killing of specific protesters and policemen, although such information can be determined from live broadcasts and synchronized and time-stamped videos, and it is presented in my study. These charges deliberately omitted various evidence, including videos, interviews, and public admissions, of Maidan “shooters” of the police.
My diaries and a lot of criticism I got over @EuroTrib …
○ Meet the Americans Who Put Together the Coup in Kiev
○ Ukraine Partners Chesno [Honestly] – USAID
○ How the Events of Sniper Fire In Instytutska Street Unfolded
○ Who Were Snipers In Kiev Massacre – A CIA-Svoboda False Flag Op?
