The Office of the Prosecutor General has submitted to the court an indictment against the former company commander of the Berkut special forces and two police officers of the unit in the case of the massacre of activists on 20 February 2014 on Instytutska Street in Kyiv.
This was reported by the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office.
‘Prosecutors of the Office of the Prosecutor General have sent to court an indictment against the former company commander of the Berkut special forces unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Sevastopol and two police officers of this unit in the case of the massacre of activists on 20 February 2014 on Instytutska Street in Kyiv,’ the statement said.
The investigation established that the company commander of the Berkut special forces unit and his subordinates were on Instytutska Street near the pedestrian bridge on 20 February 2014 at approximately 9:00 am. Acting in coordination with law enforcement officers from other units, including a special company of the Kyiv ‘Berkut’, they illegally used firearms against the protesters - Fort-500 pump-action rifles fitted with lead shot cartridges.
As a result, three protesters were killed and three others sustained gunshot wounds.
‘These crimes were preceded by further mass premeditated killings and injuries of protesters by police officers of the Kyiv Berkut special forces - the so-called Black Company and internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine - using rifled automatic and sniper firearms,’ the Prosecutor General's Office said.
Following these events, the defendants travelled to the city of Sevastopol, where they subsequently sided with the Russian Federation and contributed to the seizure of the peninsula.