dimanche 16 novembre 2014

Le massacre des Snipers, place de l'indépendance à Kiev / The “Snipers’ Massacre” on the Maidan in Ukraine

Source : https://www.academia.edu/8776021/The_Snipers_Massacre_on_the_Maidan_in_Ukraine
Auteur : Ivan Katchanovski.
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My Interview with Onet (Poland) Concerning The SnipersMassacreon the Maidan in
Ukraine Study: Full-Text English-Language Version
(October 22, 2014)
Ivan Katchanovski. Ph.D.
University of Ottawa
(Published interview version in Polish: Taka jest moja wersja, http://wiadomosci.onet.pl
(October 23, 2014))

1) Why did you start the study on the Maidan-massacre? The situation seemed to be clear.
According to Western Europe, Ukraine society, United States, Polish politics etc. - it was simply
a massacre of innocent oppositionists who were fighting against Janukovych-system. Why did
you have doubts?
I started to research the Maidan massacre because it was the crucial event, which led to the
violent overthrow of the government and gave a start to a large-scale violent conflict that now
turned into a civil war in Donbas. This massacre and the associated overthrow of the
Yanukovych government also led to sharp escalation of a conflict between the West and Russia
over Ukraine, and prompted Russian support for separatists, including its direct military
intervention. My previous academic research included similar issues. I also studied the Maidan
from its very start, including all major episodes of violence prior to February 20.
The governments and the media in Ukraine and the West immediately accepted the opposition
version of the massacre. They claimed that this mass killing was perpetrated by the government
forces on Yanukovych order, while such claims were based on inconclusive evidence. Highly
publicized videos of Berkut using live ammunition and SBU Alfa snipers radio recordings were
presented as definite evidence that they massacred protesters, even though they did not contain
direct and certain proof. Various sources, including opposition deputies, reported shortly after
the massacre existence of a video showing a sniper firing first at the special police and then at
protesters, but this video has not been made public. Ordering the mass killing by Yanukovych
appeared irrational and puzzling from a political science perspective. Yanukovych and his
associates lost all their power and much of their wealth and fled from Ukraine, since the
massacre of the protesters undermined his legitimacy even among many deputies of his Party of
Regions, who joined the opposition and voted to remove him from the presidency. Similarly,
repeated attempts of protesters to advance on the very small and relatively unimportant part of
Instytutska Street seemed also irrational and hard to explain because they came there under
constant fire, and were killed and wounded wave after wave.

2) On the 1st October, you demonstrated the results of your research at the University of Ottawa.
You showed a lot of evidences. Today, are you absolutely sure that the massacre was made by
the opposition?
It is not possible for me as a political scientist to claim absolute certainty. For example, the
evidence, such as videos and bullet trajectories, indicate that involvement of the special police
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units in killing or wounding of some of the protesters, in particular armed ones, cannot be
entirely ruled out.
But all the major sources of evidence that I analyzed independently indicate the involvement of
the elements of the opposition, including its far right wing, in the massacre. This evidence
includes at least 12 locations of suspected shooters in the Maidan-controlled buildings or areas,
such as the Hotel Ukraina, Zhovtnevyi Palace, Music Conservatory, the Trade Union building,
and the Main Post Office, which then was occupied by the Right Sector. My analysis and
synchronization in time of all publicly available videos of the massacre, including those showing
suspected shooters, and a radio intercept of a group of shooters point to the same conclusion.
Some 30 gigabytes of previously unreported intercepts of radio communications of Internal
Troops units, the SBU Alfa unit commanders and snipers, and other government agencies during
the massacre on February 20 and earlier days of the Maidan, indicate the same. Other sources of
evidence include live statements by the Maidan announcers about "snipers" shooting at the
protesters from Maidan-controlled buildings, such as the Hotel Ukraina and Zhovtnevyi Palace.
Ballistic trajectories indicate that shots came from the same directions. Eyewitness reports by
both Maidan protesters and government special units commanders and public statements by
government officials confirm many of these locations. Types and caliber of weapons, such as
Kalashnikov assault rifles and hunting rifles, bullets and pellets used to shot both the protesters
and the police, and types of wounds among both protesters and the police indicate the same.
There is also a similar track record of politically motivated misrepresentations by the Maidan
politicians of other cases of violence during and after the Maidan and in historical conflicts, such
as their denials of the involvement of the OUN and the UPA in mass killings of Jews, Poles, and
Ukrainians.

3) If we agree with your opinion, we have to admit that Ukrainian-society was cheated.
Whatever the intentions of Ukrainian-opposite-politicians were, we have to admit that the
common people in Ukraine wanted a big change. Young Ukrainians in Kiev dream about
European Union, they want to live in a real-democratic system. Your opinion can disappoint
them but it's not possible to change their dreams about democratic Ukraine. Do you agree?
I agree to a large extent. The Maidan started with mass protests against the Yanukovych refusal
to sign an association agreement with the European Union. It turned into mostly anti-government
mass protest after the violent dispersal of the protesters on November 30th by Berkut. But many
Maidan supporters were also misled to believe that at stake was the issue of Ukraine joining the
EU in the near future.

4) In Russia, there's now a big, well developed propaganda. Lots of people will think that your
concept is a part of pro-Russian propaganda-strategy. What can you tell your enemies? In
Ukraine, you can become an enemy number one. On the other hand, in your opinion, there is
opposition-government who falsifies history. Now, you're waiting for counterarguments made by
Ukrainian-authorities? Are you ready to fight a discussion on the causes of the massacre of
Kiev?
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Such kind of false and baseless charges already started. Such personal attacks are used to divert
attention from the evidence presented and from finding and prosecuting actual organizers and
perpetrators of the mass killing. In retaliation for my academic research on such issues and on
the OUN and the UPA, my house, the land, and all personal possessions in the Volyn Region of
Ukraine were recently de facto seized with help of local courts on orders from the higher-up
authorities. I did this study as a part of my academic research, and I did not receive any outside
funding or requests to do it. I do not expect that any such new evidence would be presented or
discussion initiated by the Ukrainian government and the media in Ukraine.
The findings about the "snipers'" massacre also provide a rational explanation for the Russian
actions in Ukraine after the largely violent overthrow of the pro-Russian government,
specifically, Russia's support for separatists, its illegal annexation of Crimea, and its military
intervention in Crimea and Donbas. Russian propaganda incorrectly represented the ouster of
Yanukovych as a fascist coup, and similar propaganda was used on other important issues, such
as denials of their direct military intervention in Crimea and then in August in Donbas. But Putin
and other Russian government officials also publicly stated that the opposition, and specifically,
the Right Sector, organized the massacre on February 20 as a key part of a violent overthrow of
the pro-Russian government, although they did not present specific evidence. It is now appears
that they had such evidence, likely from intelligence sources and the Yanukovych government
officials who fled to Russia. An international investigation of the massacre could help to reduce a
possibility of a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine.

5) Maidan-revolution is one of the newest, important part of European history. We have a
complete different perspective on the massacre in Poland, Russia, Ukraine... If you have to
explain to your students: "what happened and why it happened - in Kiev 20 February 2014 -
what would you say?
The massacre of the protesters and the police was organized by an alliance between elements of
the Maidan opposition and the far right in order to seize power. This was a rational action which
achieved its goals with use of such methods. This violent overthrow constituted an undemocratic
change of government, and the mass killing was a major human rights crime.

6) In Poland, we have a distance to conspiracy theories. Four years ago, we experienced the
Smolensk disaster in which our president and 95 other people died. After this tragedy, many
scientists have created all sorts of theories. Why should we believe you? In your theory, what are
the strongest evidences?
I do not believe in conspiracy theories. My study is based on the various sources of evidence,
which independently corroborate each other and can be easily accessed and verified. The
strongest evidence includes a few remaining publicly available recordings of live broadcasts
showing suspected shooters on the roofs of Zhovtnevyi Palace and Muzeinyi Lane buildings
during the height of the massacre. I also found on a radio scanners forum time-stamped radio
intercepts of Security Service of Ukraine Alfa commanders and Internal Troops on February 20.
These previously unreported intercepts contain specific information about “shooters” or
“snipers” from the Maidan side, their use of live ammunition against the government police and
security forces on February 18-20, and about movement of these shooters to the Hotel
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Ukraina that coincided with the start of the mass killing of the protesters in the morning of
February 20.

7) You suggest that the massacre might have been created by the members of Right Sector. In
Poland, we talk a lot about this organization. We are afraid of RS. What do you think about this
organization? What are theirs objectives?
In Poland, we also talk a lot about the party "Svoboda", which honor the authors of the Volyncrime.
For many Poles, it is incomprehensible that Polish politicians stood shoulder by shoulder
with the policies of Svoboda during the Maidan-revolution. In your opinion, is Svoboda a threat?
The Right Sector is an alliance of radical nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations and football
ultras. These organizations regard themselves to various extent as ideological heirs of the OUN
and the UPA. The Right Sector was formed at the beginning of the Euromaidan mass protests. It
played a key role in other major cases of violence, such as attempts to storm the presidential
administration on December 1 and the parliament in the end of January and on February 18. The
evidence points to the Right Sector involvement in the mass killings of both the protesters and
the police. Such evidence includes a shooting of a female medic from the Main Post Office when
it was occupied by the Right Sector, and its involvement in the creation of a special combat
company based in the Conservatory building. Shooters killed and wounded many Berkut
members in the early morning of February 20 from the Conservatory building, and then moved
to other locations from which many protesters were killed and wounded later in the morning.
The Right Sector achieved its goal of the ouster of the Yanukovych government, but its main
goal is the "national revolution." While they formally are not represented in the Maidan
government, the Right Sector and its constituent organizations, such as the Social National
Assembly, formed their paramilitary units or special police battalions with the new government
support.
Svoboda played an important role in the Maidan protests, and it occupied several important
positions in the Maidan government. Its participation also led to wide use of OUN and UPA
slogans and symbols by relatively more democratic and non-nationalist opposition parties and
protesters during and after the Euromaidan. Svoboda leaders tried to moderate in public their
previous extremist orientation and statements. However, there are important but still unanswered
questions about their involvement in the massacre.

8) In your research, you write about numerous errors/lies of Ukraine's authorities. For example:
one of the commanders of Berkut were accused of shooting protesters using rifles but... few years
earlier he lost his hand so it wasnt possible. What can you say about your biggest surprises
during working on the massacre-research?
I was surprised by the sheer amount of different kinds of evidence that was publicly available,
but was ignored, suppressed, or misrepresented by both the government and the media in
Ukraine. Another surprise was that the Western governments showed a little interest in
independent investigation of the massacre.
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9) In your research, you affirm that snipers in Maidan were aiming for example at foreign
journalists. Assuming your theory, could the death of Polish and other journalists be convenient
for the authors of the massacre?
Rooms occupied by many foreign journalists, for instance, from BBC, the Associated Press,
Polish TVP, American ABC News, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, German ARD, and
Russia RT, came under fire from Maidan-controlled buildings. Because nobody of them was
killed or wounded, in contrast to the protesters, it is likely that the journalists from the leading
foreign media were targeted to prevent them from filming the actual shooters.

10) To summarize: in your opinion, is all Ukrainian-revolution based on a big lie?
The "snipers'" massacre and its misrepresentation by then opposition politicians and the media in
Ukraine played a key role in the overthrow of the government. The legitimacy of the new
government also rests to a significant extent on such misrepresentation. For this reason, the
investigation of this crucial case of the mass killing has been manipulated and delayed. The
misrepresentation of the Maidan massacre helps to understand similar misrepresentations of the
Odesa massacre and civilian casualties of the civil war in Donbas. The Euromaidan protest
movement and the major political changes and developments that it produced in Ukraine cannot
be reduced to this massacre. That said, this case of mass killing already had a major impact on
the future of Ukraine by giving a start to large-scale violent conflict that turned into the civil war,
helping to prompt the Russian military intervention, and de facto break-up of Ukraine.


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