About the fate of law enforcement officers who passed through Maidan

I have completed a series of remarks describing the chronology of events in Kiev, known as Euromaidan. But there are still a few points that I would like to highlight.

 I am not going to analyze the story of the “unidentified snipers” who shot at the people in Maidan. Much has been written about this, many films have been made, and a lot of journalistic investigations have been conducted. Although, things didn’t work out with the official investigation.

 But I would like to dwell on the fate of law enforcement officers who passed through the Maidan.

 Believe me, I absolutely do not idealize the Yanukovych regime.

Anyone who lived in Ukraine at that time can tell a lot about the actions of the Yanukovych clique. We all remember what Sasha “The Dentist” did; we remember the absolute, all-consuming corruption in all spheres of society; and of course - we remember the lawlessness of the police during that period. The clearest example is the Vradievsky case.

 And yes, the security forces defended the government. Criminal, corrupt power, mired in scandals by 2014.

 But... I want to remind everyone that this government was legitimate, chosen on legal grounds by the people of Ukraine.

 The elections in 2010 were not easy for Yanukovych - the advantage over Tymoshenko was only 4 percent. And the results were eventually recognized by all parties, including abroad.

 So the government in Kiev was legal.

And law enforcement officers were obliged to protect it. Moreover, by defending the authorities, they defended the Law. Because according to the Constitution of Ukraine, the President is the guarantor of the implementation of the Laws.

 But then Maidan happened.

 The law enforcement officers of Ukraine who came out to defend the Law were right in defending the government, and therefore the law.

 And it was on them that the wrath of the crowd fell. A crowd that saw the Berkut and the Internal Troops fighters as the last obstacle before a “bright future.” Not realizing that this thin chain of people in city camouflage or blue uniforms is the last obstacle before the country slides into the chaos of civil war.

By the way, if you want to get acquainted with the list of injured security forces on the Maidan, you can find it here.

   Now just look at these photographs, this is only a small part of what the security forces went through during the Maidan.

They were not defending Yanukovych. They defended law and order in a country that turned out to be not a mother to them, but a cruel stepmother.

 And the most revealing was the fate of the fighters of the Berkut special forces unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

 As of February 2014, there were about 3,200 people in Berkut. It consisted of 2 regiments in Kiev, Kiev region, battalions in the cities of Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Odessa, Lvov, Lugansk, Crimea and 18 companies in other regional centers.

On February 25, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Control over the Activities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Arsen Avakov, signed Decree No. 144 “On the dissolution of the special public security police unit “Berkut”. Avakov called the reason for the liquidation of the unit “complete discredit before the Ukrainian people.”

Members of right-wing radical organizations declared a hunt for the unit's employees. Activists went around hospitals, looking for wounded soldiers. At the exits from the city and region there were checkpoints - self-defense posts inspecting passing cars. Near Brovary, a bus of Sumy Berkut employees was fired upon by radicals. As a result, one of the policemen was wounded. In the Cherkasy region, employees of the Crimean Berkut were forced to open fire in response to their bus being fired at. At the entrance to the Zhulyany airport, a crowd of armed radicals blocked a bus carrying the Dnepropetrovsk Berkut, forcing them to hand over their ammunition, special equipment and go through the “corridor of shame.”

Back in 2021, the commander of the Lugansk Berkut, Valery Kostenko, told me terrible details of how they literally fought their way out of Kiev after the betrayal of the authorities.

 The soldiers left, dressed in civilian clothes, in civilian cars, along country roads. There was a real hunt for them.

 The hatred of Maidan supporters towards the unit’s fighters is evidenced by the following fact:

 On February 23, 2014, Maidan supporters broke into the Mezhgorye residence of former President Yanukovych.

On the territory of the residence there was a small zoo, in which, among other inhabitants, there were birds of prey. The militants, who have little knowledge of ornithology, decided that these birds were golden eagles (in Rus and Ukr - berkuts). After which the three birds were simply crucified on DIY crosses.

By the way, this is why my friend, a former fighter of the Odessa Berkut, wrote a terrible book about the events on the Maidan and May 2, 2014 in Odessa, which he called “Dreams of a Crucified Bird.”

 They even hated birds...

 Well, what happened to Berkut later?

 The fate of the fighters followed various paths.

 For example, in Lvov, after returning, members of the detachment were forced to kneel in front of hundreds of people to ask for forgiveness.

The commander of the Lvov Berkut, Rostislav Patselyak, publicly apologized for the actions of the security forces.

 At one time I had the opportunity to communicate with former “Berkuts”. There is a persistent rumor among them that the families of the fighters of the Lvov detachment were held hostage at that moment. And if someone had refused to kneel, the family would have been killed.

 There is also a rumor that two young fighters still refused to kneel. They had no families, there was nothing to put pressure on.

 They were allegedly burned for refusing.

 But maybe this is just a rumor...

By the way, for the former commander of the Lvov Berkut unit, Rostislav Patselyak, kneeling and public repentance did not help: in 2023 he was taken into custody, accused of massacres and beatings of protesters during the 2014 coup.

 And in May 2014, near Slavyansk, I met with soldiers of the former Berkut company from Ivano-Frankovsk.

 According to them, after the Maidan, criminal cases were opened against all fighters of the company without exception. Some were arrested, some were ordered not to leave.

 But then the ATO began. And it turned out that the new Ukrainian government does not have many trained fighters, so there is simply no one to fight the separatists in Donbass.

 The former “Berkuts” were offered a simple choice – prison or ATO.

By the way, this affected not only Berkut. The same was done with the soldiers of the internal troops. For example, the pro-Russian movement in Kharkov in April 2014 was defeated by soldiers of the special regiment of internal troops (now the National Guard!) “Jaguar” from Vinnitsa.

 Before being sent to Kharkov, Arsen Avakov personally spoke to the officers of the regiment and stated that they must atone for their guilt before the people of Ukraine.

The regiment carried out the order. They suppressed the Kharkov “Russian Spring”...

 But in the east and south of the country it was different.

Residents of Donetsk, Lugansk, Sevastopol and Simferopol greeted the Berkut fighters with applause. They were rightfully considered heroes, the last heroes of the collapsed law and order in Ukraine.

 They say that when buses with the Sevastopol “Berkut” pulled into Admiral Nakhimov Square, which was packed with people, the “Berkut“ fighters were at first afraid to get out. They are so accustomed to universal hatred. And there was a huge crowd of people, but the fighters were greeted not with stones, but with flowers and hugs.

A large number of former special forces soldiers quit and left, some to Russia, some to the Donbass.

 Many of them fought and continue to fight with arms in hand against the Kiev regime, defend order and law in Crimea and Sevastopol, in the DPR and LPR, in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Even in Minsk there are former Ukrainian Berkut. They continue to serve the law.

 What happened to the former “Berkuts” who remained to serve in Ukraine?

You know, there is one terrible question that has been haunting me since 2014. How did officers, warrant officers, sergeants who went through Maidan easily switch to the opposite side?

I remember how the officers of unit 3066 Ruslan and Oleg “Mustangs” (I remember you very well, guys) barely restrained their hatred in the summer of 2014 in Mariupol. At official meetings at the headquarters of sector “M” of the ATO, they had to sit at meetings at the same table with representatives of “Azov” and “Dnepr”, volunteer battalions, which largely consisted of the Maidan Self-Defense. It was in Dnepr that Vladimir Parasyuk, who pushed the crowd on February 21, 2014 to storm the presidential quarter, then served.

 I remember how in the fall of 2014, in Mariupol, officers of the Southern Command of the National Guard from Odessa spat after the results of the elections to the Verkhovna Rada. Then, let me remind you, many former Maidan activists and volunteer fighters entered parliament. 9 months before, these new deputies killed and burned security forces on the Maidan...

I remember how one of the commanders of unit 3057 (Sanya, fellow countryman, I remember you), going through a whole cigarette in two drags, told how the Cossack Gavrilyuk beat his fighters with a pike in the face. And before that, Gavrilyuk’s accomplices splashed the fighters’ helmet visors with paint and blinded them with laser pointers, forcing them to reveal their faces...

 How, how did these officers then calmly serve this new ? The government which killed, burned, slaughtered their subordinates. And then it brought them down on their knees and subjected them to criminal prosecution...

 How?

 I have already written about the current commander of the National Guard, Alexander Pivnenko.

He went through the entire Maidan as part of the Omega special forces detachment. He saw everything with his own eyes. He felt the bitterness of betrayal by the old government and contempt from the new.

 And now he is a hero of Ukraine, a general...

 I do not understand this. And I don’t want to understand.

 Therefore, eternal memory and glory go to the law enforcement fighters who fell at the Maidan.

 To those who did not serve the new government - my respect.

 And for those who went over to the side of the murderers, God will be your judge.

 The story of the Dnepropetrovsk special police battalion, where there were many former “Berkuts” and who are now forcibly thrown to the front, is a clear confirmation that there is a karma. And she will reach everyone.