KIEV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s interim authorities today accused fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych of ordering snipers to open fire on protesters and getting help from Russian security agents to battle his own people, but they provided no evidence directly linking him to the bloodbath in Kiev that left more than 100 people dead.
Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov also accused his predecessor, who was in charge of police, of recruiting gangs of killers, kidnappers and thugs to terrorise and undermine the opposition during the months-long protests.
The inquiry revealed by Kiev’s new leadership examined the months of anti-government protests that culminated in the bloodshed that peaked on February 20, just days before Yanukovych fled to Russia.
Speaking at a televised news conference, Avakov said police snipers shot at demonstrators near Kiev’s Independence Square, also known as the Maidan, as they walked toward the government district. He said 17 people were killed by snipers positioned at the October Palace cultural centre and that one sniper alone killed as many as eight people.
Security officials then moved to cover up and destroy evidence “to ensure that any investigations would be impossible”, Avakov said. “Clothes were burned, weapons discarded and documents destroyed.”
Ukrainian Security Service chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko charged that Yanukovych himself ordered the killings.
“What was planned under the guise of an anti-terrorist operation, and which was in fact an operation of mass killing of people, took place under the immediate and direct leadership of former president Yanukovych,” Nalyvaichenko said.
He did not elaborate on where he got his information.
In an interview yesterday with The Associated Press, Yanukovych firmly denied that he gave orders to shoot demonstrators, saying that members of his inner circle even criticised him for his reluctance to use force during protests.
Nalyvaichenko also said there was evidence that Russia’s FSB security service, the successor agency to the KGB, assisted in attempts to suppress the anti-government protests. He said FSB members were deployed at a Ukrainian security facility – 26 in December and six in January – and that they took part in planning and implementing anti-protest measures. He said the Russians even interrogated the Ukrainian security chief.
