(In the text below I summarize the events on Maidan Square, Kiev from 23 November - 20 February 2014. It concludes with two videos which totally contradict the narrative favored by the post-Maidan leadership and all western elites regarding the final event which ended Maidan, the murder of some 80 persons by sniper fire from Hotel Ukraine.)
It was mid-February. The chaos was reaching its peak in the square.
Before very long the chestnut trees would blossom, the children would have their spring break and the Ukrainian people would look forward to warmer weather and the summer ahead.
The capital had already been in total turmoil since late November of the previous year and everyone was concentrating totally on the here and now. History was in the making.
But who were those making it?
The president and government (legally and democratically elected according to electoral observers) had been negotiating since the preceding November with EU representatives on an ‘Association Agreement’ which had the potential to lead to much needed funds being provided to Ukraine.
There were difficulties in reaching an agreement including major problems to do with the support of Ukrainian agriculture. Russia had reportedly offered to provide Ukraine with $5 billion, a reduction in the price of Russian natural gas and the creation of a free trade zone.
Rumors, speculations and unfounded accusations about talks continued non-stop as the Ukrainian authorities continued to repeat the intention to draw closer to the EU if agreement could be reached.
But nothing would stop the mayhem, November ended with Maidan in endless turmoil and by mid-December a pitched battle was in progress between the two sides which ranged across the square.
On one side police, mostly young men, armed with a shield and a baton.
On the other thousands of young men also, armed with a vast range of improvised weapons. Clubs of many kinds, one or two hand guns and a number of hunting rifles, Molotov Cocktails, sprays, chains and bricks.
Much in evidence were signs, symbols and coded references of support to a Nazi heritage that still infests a violent minority in western Ukraine till today. The swastika is a common sight daubed on many walls at this time and continues to be a feature along with the favored signs and logos reminiscent of Nazi emblems forming the official uniforms and literature of militant groups.
As December worse on there was a daily pitched battle in a continuous war against the Ukrainian state and specifically against the president and government. It was a war coordinated to some degree by the U.S. embassy where training had been given to those now active on Maidan. Violence had been used by both the security services and the rioters and this escalated into ever more vicious and unforgiving encounters, especially among the rioters who appeared ready to kill any member of the police they could get their hands on.
Mistakes were made on each side as one side then the other attempted to gain an advantage. At the core of the issue however was the mistrust with which the rioters held the president and government and an unwillingness to let the democratic process take its course. The Ukrainian state was under siege and those on Maidan appeared ready to burn everything to the ground and commit whatever acts of violence were necessary to get their way.
Activists who have broken into government offices are removed using overbearing force being beaten and kicked by the special forces used to remove them. In early December a statue of Lenin was toppled and set upon by the mob until broken into pieces. The national flag of Ukraine and the red and black flag of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army replaced it.
The scene on Maidan:
A rain of fire bursts on the helmets of a group of police from a hail of Molotov Cocktails. A bulldozer with a mob behind it approaches a line of police shields. One hapless officer is chased, bricks flying, trips and hits his head on the cobbles and lies unconscious while the mob surrounds him beating him with whatever weapon comes to hand. A group of police cower, arms before their eyes, as a rioter sprays them with a toxic material from a can. A government building is broken into and burned down. Rioters are photographed with hand guns and rifles.
Barack Obama calls for the Ukrainian authorities in Kiev to respect and not harm the “peaceful protestors”.
There is a request from the security services to be issued weapons. It is denied. Their shields and batons will have to suffice and in this way keep casualties to a minimum.
The noise on the square is unbelievably loud with interminable thuds, cracks, glass smashing, shouts and screams rend the air. Every possible object that can be has been transformed into a weapon with which to attack the police.
One day follows the other with the violence on Maidan showing no sign of abating but instead intensifying.
The ‘Association Agreement’ with the EU is being increasingly seen by the president and government as being quite detrimental to Ukraine in certain aspects, especially when compared with the various offers of assistance from Russia. However, negotiations with EU representatives go on to try to come to an agreement on a comprehensive deal that is best for both sides.
Meanwhile several senior U.S. officials arrive in Kiev including U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, Senator John McCain and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. McCain stands on a public stage along with members of the political opposition and offers encouragement to the crowd gathered to hear speeches there. Pyatt and Nuland famously wander on Maidan distributing items from bags of food they have brought. Some time later a phone conversation is leaked between the two where they discuss who should take power when Yanukovich is gone and the government falls. It is during this conversation that Nuland infamously says... “And fuck the EU”.
From CBS News on 11 December 2013:
‘Top U.S. official visits protesters in Kiev as Obama admin. ups pressure on Ukraine president Yanukovich’
‘Nuland’s highly symbolic appearance in the square came a day after Secretary of State John Kerry issued a strong statement, expressing the United States' "disgust with the decision of Ukrainian authorities to meet the peaceful protest ... with riot police, bulldozers, and batons, rather than with respect for democratic rights and human dignity."
"This response is neither acceptable nor does it befit a democracy," said Kerry, urging authorities to show "utmost restraint" and protect human life. "As church bells ring tonight amidst the smoke in the streets of Kyiv, the United States stands with the people of Ukraine. They deserve better."
The protesters, who see Yanukovych as being too close to the Kremlin in Moscow, took to the streets two weeks ago over his decision to pull out of an association agreement with the European Union, which would have established a free-trade zone and bolstered political and other ties between the former Soviet republic and the European bloc.’
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-victoria-nuland-wades-into-ukraine-turmoil-over-yanukovich/
Yanukovich has a reported six meetings with the president of Russia over the period of the disturbances seeking the best deal for Ukraine. In mid-December the Prime Minister attempts to find common ground with the EU representatives and requests €20 billion from the European Union "to provide conditions to minimize losses for the Ukrainian economy" in connection with signing the Association Agreement. Talks between President Yanukovych and the EU's Catherine Ashton and US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland continue, hoping to find agreement.
‘On 18 December Prime Minister Mykola Azarov stated that without the deal with Russia "bankruptcy and social collapse would have awaited Ukraine". He also added that there was no way Ukraine could have signed the EU Association Agreement as Ukraine would have had to accept unfeasibly stringent IMF conditions for economic reform.’ (Wikipedia)
‘On 19 December President Viktor Yanukovych stated "We have decided to pause [on the Association Agreement] to work out on what kind of conditions should be in place for us to sign the Free Trade Zone Agreement [a part of the Association Agreement]. And this answer should be found by the government. There isn't any contradiction about Ukraine's course on the [EU] integration issue. Generally, this is not about the integration, this is about economical relations". Although he added "If we talk about the work on the free trade agreement [a part of the EU Association Agreement], this will take us some time, and we still have a lot of uncertainties. Surely, we should see how this will benefit us in the short term, midterm, and long term". He also added that Ukraine may combine the EU Association Agreement with observer status in the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union.’
Yanukovych’s intentions were never to be realized. The situation on the Maidan went from bad to worse until...
On the 20th of February 2014 there were a great many deaths resulting from gunfire by unidentified snipers firing from Hotel Ukraine. Along with all those killed among the protestors were four members of the Ukrainian security forces. Despite a long investigation no conclusive proof of who those who fired the shots was ever found. It is suspected by many that this was a false flag designed to bring the resultant resignation of the government and the removal of the president.
An Italian investigative journalist Gian Micalessin, interviewed three snipers who claim to have shot those killed on that day. Georgians they claim to have been sent to Ukraine by security services aligned with the American allied and educated ex- president of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili. Their accounts are extremely detailed and give the reason for the events of that day as part of the effort to stop early presidential elections taking place.
This they did. Yanukovych fled Ukraine the next day never to return. The government fell and a pro-EU government was installed. Later in the year a fiercely anti-Russian president, Poroshenko, was elected.
Now watch both videos below for what appears to be the answer to who brought the Maidan protests to an end and with them the time in office of the existing, democratically elected president and government of Ukraine.
If you prefer, the text of the interviews conducted can be found below the videos.
https://youtu.be/wR1NFI6TBH0
https://youtu.be/V0rR2Fh1zWI
Transcript of the videos above:
‘What the hell? Who is shooting? Somebody got shot! I can’t believe it happened right here! A man standing right next to me just got shot!
It was at dawn, I heard sounds of gunshots as bullets were flying. Somebody got shot in the head by a sniper.
We were ordered to shoot at the police and protestors randomly.
Which location were the shots fired [from]? From the Ukraine Hotel?
The shooting was from the Ukraine Hotel.
Kyiv, February 2014. It is three months the Maidan square, in the heart of the capital, has been filled with protestors; who’ve been demanding the government and president, Victor Yanukovych, to sign an association agreement with the European Union.
On February 18th the clashes have become bloody, with about 30 casualties. The worst moment will be in the morning of February 20th. A group of unknown snipers began firing at protestors and police. In a short period of time up to 80 dead were counted.
The next day [February 21st, president] Yanukovych leaves the country. On February 22nd the opposition seizes power.
But who was shooting at the crowd and opposition?
To this very day, the official version from Kiev is the slaughter was conducted by the order of the Kremlin-backed [Yanukovych] government. This version seemed suspicious to many. The Foreign Minister of Estonia, Ermas Paet, was the first one to dispute this.
Returning from a trip to Kiev only 5 days after the massacre, [Paet] reported in a phone call to EU Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, revelations from a Ukrainian doctor who examined the cadavers of Maidan square. The intercepted phone call, published widely by the Russian media, is disconcerting.
“The most disturbing thing [Paet explains] is that all of the evidence points to the people killed by snipers, both police and people in the street, were killed by the same snipers.”
Speaking with a clearly embarrassed Ashton, the foreign minister cites the testimony of the Ukrainian doctor:
“She speaks as a doctor, and says it is the same signature, the same kind of bullets. It is really disturbing that now the new coalition [Paet reaffirms] refuses to investigate what is really going on. There is a very strong conviction that they’re are behind the snipers … That it is not Yanukovych, but some of the new coalition…”
After four years from the beginning at November 2013 of Maidan demonstrations, we are able to tell another truth, completely different from the official story. Our story begins towards the end of summer 2017, in Skopye, the capital of Macedonia. There, after long and complex negotiations, we met with Koba Nergadze and Kvarateskelia Zalogy, two Georgian participants and witnesses in the tragic shootings and massacre.
Both Nergadze and Zalogy are linked to former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili , who started, in August 2008, a short but bloody war with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Nergadze, as proved by an identification card he holds, was a member of a security service at President Saakashvili’s order. Zalogy is a former Saakashvili party activist.
“I decided to come to Skopije to tell you everything we know, about what happened … and I and my friend have decided together, we need to shed some light on those facts,” Nergadze says.
Nargadze also says Alexander Revazishvilli, [we met] a few months later, a former sniper of the Georgian army, participated in the Maidan shootout. [We] met in another Eastern European country.
All three of our participants say that they were recruited at the end of 2013 by Mamuka Mamulashvili, a Saakashvili military advisor who, after the Maidan action, will move to the Donbass, to lead the so-called Georgian Legion in clashes with ethnic Russian insurgents.
“The first meeting was with Mamulashvili [was] at the office of the National Movement,” Zalogy said. “The Ukrainian uprising in 2013 was similar to the” Pink Revolution “that took place in Georgia years before. We had to direct and guide it using the same pattern used for the “Pink Revolution”
Alexander’s version is no different. “Mamuka first asked me if I was really a trained sniper, Alexander recalls, [then] he immediately told me he needed me in Kiev to pick some places.”
Our informants integrated to various groups of volunteers between November 2013 and January 2014, [after] receiving passports with false names, and money advances.
“We left on January 15, and on the plane, Zalogy remembers, I received my passport and another [passport] with my photo but with different name and surname. Then they gave us each a thousand dollars to begin, promising to give another five thousand more“
Once in Kiev, our three participants begin to understand better why they were recruited. “Our task, Alexander explains, was to arrange provocations to push the police to charge the crowd. Until the middle of February, however, there were not many weapons around. The Molotovs, the shields and the sticks were used to the maximum.”
But in mid-February, clashes around Maidan begin to get worse. “About 15 and 16 February,” Nergadze remembers, “the situation has begun to become more serious every day. It was out of control now. And in the meantime, the first shoots were heard. “With the rising of tensions, new players [would] come into play”
“One day around February 15, remembers Alexander, Mamualashvili personally visited our tent. There was another guy in his uniform with him. He introduced him and told us he was an instructor, an American soldier.” The US military veteran Brian Christopher Boyenger, is a former officer and sniper for the 101st Airborne Division. After Maidan, [Boyenger] moves on to the Donbass front, where he will fight in the ranks of the Georgian Legion alongside Mamulashvili.
“We were always in touch with this Bryan, Nergadze explains, he was a Mamulashvili man. It was he who gave us the orders. I had to follow all his instructions“
The first suspects in the possession of firearms among the ranks of demonstrators, involve Serghey Pashinsky, a leader of Maidan Square, who became, after the fall of Yanukovych, chairman of the Kiev parliament.
On February 18, in a video made that day, a rifle locked in a car was recorded with video taken by a demonstrator, showing an automatic rifle. A few seconds after, Pashinsky approaches and orders the car be allowed to go. The next day, weapons were distributed to groups of Georgian and Lithuanian mercenaries residing in Hotel Ukraine, the hotel overlooking the square used as a headquarters by opposition.
“In those days, Pashinsky and three other people, including Parasyuk, had taken the weapons handbags to the hotel. They were going to get them into my room,” Nergadze says.
Volodymyr Parasyuk is one of the leaders of the Maidan Square protest. After the massacre of demonstrators, he will become famous for an ultimatum in which he will threaten to use weapons to hunt President Viktor Yanukovych.
“On February 18, recalls Zalogy, someone took some weapons to my room. In the room with me there were two Lithuanians, the weapons were unpacked by them.”
“In each bag, recalls Nergadze, there were Makarov’s pistols, Akm automatics, carbines. And there were packages of cartridges. When I first saw them I did not understand …. When Mamulashvili arrived, I also asked him. “What’s going on,” I told him, “what are these weapons? Is everything all right?
“Koba, things are getting complicated, we have to start shooting,” he replied, “we can not go to the pre-election presidential elections …” “But who should we shoot? And where? “I asked him.” He replied that where he did not care, we had to shoot somewhere … to sow some chaos.“
“While Nergadze and Zalogy assisted in arms distribution at the hotel, Alexander Revazishvilli and other volunteers went to the Conservatory, another building overlooking the square. “It was February 16th … Pashinsky ordered us to collect our belongings and bring them in … Other people arrived, they were almost all masked.
“From their cases I understood … they carried weapons …. They pulled them out and handed them over to the various groups. Only Pashinsky was talking … “He was giving orders. He asked me where we were supposed to shoot. ” “In the meantime, explained Nergadze, even at the Ukraine hotel, the leaders of the revolt underlined the purpose of using the weapons.
“They explained to us to shoot to create chaos and confusion. We did not have to stop. It did not matter if we fired at a tree, a barricade, or a Molotov. The important thing was to sow chaos. ”
On the 20th, in the morning, the plan came into action. “It was supposed to be dawn,” Zalogy remembers, “when I heard the sound of the shots … they were not bursts, they were single strokes … came from the next room. At that same time, the Lithuanians opened the window. One of them fired one shot while the other closed the window. They have fired three or four times everywhere.”
Alexander, admitting he was involved in the shootout from the Conservatory building, claims to have understood very little. “Everyone started shooting two or three shots at a time. We did not have much choice. We were ordered to shoot both the Berkut, the police, and the demonstrators, no matter what. I was totally outraged. It went on for fifteen minutes … maybe twenty. I was out of my mind, agitated, under stress, I did not understand anything. Then suddenly, after 15, 20 minutes the shooting ceased and everyone has put down the weapons. ”
As wounded and dead arrived in the Ukrainian Hotel’s reception, the snipers fled from the rooms. And so the victims found themselves next to their assassins.
“Inside, recalls Nergadze, “there was chaos, you did not understand who was who. People ran back and forth. Someone was hurt … someone was armed. Outside was even worse. There were so many injured in the streets. And the many dead.”
Alexander says he left in a hurry. “Someone was shouting that there were snipers, I knew what they were talking about,” he said, “my only thought was to disappear before they knew about me. Otherwise, they had me. At that time, however, I did not realize, but now I understand. I do understand. We’ve been used. Used and discarded.”
https://fort-russ.com/2019/10/ukraines-maidan-snipers-were-u-s-assets-from-georgia/
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