Every Maidan death must be investigated

Journalist Olga Khudetska lists the names of murdered Maidan activists whose death circumstances do not fit the bounds of the so-called “sniper” version of events. “As important as the subject of snipers is, it should not serve to cover up hundreds of those who beat people to death with their feet and batons,” writes The Insider journalist Olga Khudetska on her Facebook page.

“Narrowing the story of what has happened down to several sniper groups is extremely convenient for both the investigators and the guilty, as well as for the entire security infrastructure. This means pushing into the shadows hundreds and thousands of security officers, who battered protesters to death, who hurled grenades at their heads, who used “modernized” (or event, perhaps, live) grenades, who stocked, tracked, kidnapped, and tortured. It also means discounting all those hundreds and thousands of security troops, who saw, heard, or knew about such actions of titushky and death squads, and not only failed to stop but helped the assailants,” said the journalist.

Khudetska then continues to provide a long list of murders that cannot be explained by the “sniper” story:

Taras Slobodian disappeared from the Maidan. His body was found in the woods in Sumy oblast. Autopsy revealed that he was tortured.

25-year-old Maksym Horoshyshyn died on February 18 from gas poisoning which he suffered during clashes on Instytutska Street next to the government quarter. Doctors were unable to save his life. Viktor Shvets went to the Maidan on February 18. He phoned his family at 11 pm, saying that everything was fine. At 4 am, family received a call from the morgue, saying that he died around 1 am. He was being transported, presumably still alive, to the Emergency Hospital from Mykhailivska Street, but was then taken to Shevchenkivsky district police station, stripped naked, and sent to the morgue on Oranzhereina Street. He was recorded as a police officer, because he had an ID card of a retired police officer on him.

Volodymyr Naumov was kidnapped and strangled on his way from the Maidan. His body was found on Trukhaniv Island in Kyiv.

Andriy Tsepun, 35 years old from Kyiv was beaten to death on the night of February 21. Berkut officers doused Ivan Horodniuk in water and beat him on February 18. He did not survive. Dmytro Maksymov’s arm was severed at the shoulder by a grenade explosion. Witnesses say that this was a live grenade. Ihor Serdiuk was murdered on February 18 by titushky acting in tandem with Berkut officers near the Mariyinsky Palace. Yakiv Zaiko died of a heart attack following clashes outside of the Verkhovna Rada on February 18. Serhiy Didych and Oleksandr Kapinos died as a result of having an artery torn by an exploding grenade. “And, of course, everyone remembers the beheaded body, right? As well as the 263 missing persons, right?” reminds the journalist. “There is a huge difference, from a purely psychological point of view, between pulling a trigger while looking at a movie-like figure through a sniper scope, and beating that figure to death with your own hands. Or beheading. Under such circumstances, snipers may look like a child’s play,” notes Khudetska. Translated by Olga Ruda, edited by Mariana Budjeryn

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