How the coup d'état began in Ukraine #14

So, it was the morning of February 18, 2014.

  In the morning, opposition leaders organized a so-called “peaceful offensive” on the Verkhovna Rada, in which several thousand Euromaidan activists took part. The column, which was headed by people's deputies Andrei Ilyenko, Oleg Tyagnibok, Oleg Lyashko, Andrei Parubiy, did not reach the Verkhovna Rada building by 100 meters, but ran into trucks with which the police blocked Shelkovichnaya Street. Unable to get close to parliament, activists began throwing stones at the police and set fire to trucks using Molotov cocktails. In response, the police fired stun grenades at the attackers and used tear gas.

In the Verkhovna Rada itself, the opposition demanded that Chairman Vladimir Rybak register a draft resolution on a return to the 2004 Constitution. He refused and, as an alternative, suggested that the Rada first create a special commission to develop an agreed bill on amending the constitution, and only then reform the basic law. After this, the podium and the presidium of the Verkhovna Rada were blocked by oppositionists.

 Trying to get to the Verkhovna Rada from the other side, Euromaidan supporters attempted to get to the Mariinsky Park through Lipskaya Street and Krepostnoy Lane (they are perpendicular to Grushevsky Street, on which the Verkhovna Rada is located and they are connected to the Mariinsky Park).

Protesters seized the House of Officers at the intersection of Grushevsky Street and Krepostnoy Lane, where a temporary first-aid post was set up to which wounded protesters were taken.

 On Grushevsky Street, protesters again set tires on fire, and in the government quarter they smashed and burned several cars parked on the streets.

 In the afternoon, protesters attacked the office of the Party of Regions on Lipskaya Street, destroyed it and set it on fire.

Office employees who tried to escape from the building, mostly women, as well as security police officers, were beaten on the way out, jewelry and clothes were torn off.

 What is interesting is that the unknown persons in balaclavas who broke into the office first took all the computer system units and documentation out of the building, and only then set the building on fire.

 As a result of a fire in the office, one person died - 57-year-old system administrator Vladimir Zakharov.

 By the way, Tatyana Chernovol took an active part in the attack on the office of the Party of Regions.

At the same time, protesters began to erect a barricade at the corner of Shelkovichnaya and Institutskaya streets, thus blocking Institutskaya Street in front of trucks that were blocking the passage to parliament

 In fact, at that time the protesters practically surrounded the territory of the Verkhovna Rada.

 At 13:30, the first reports of gunshot wounds to law enforcement officers began to arrive.

 At about 3 p.m., protesters tried to break into the Ministry of Health building, located deep in the Mariinsky Park. Security managed to prevent the building from being seized.

On the afternoon of February 18, the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine A. Yakimenko and the acting Minister of Internal Affairs of the country V. Zakharchenko stated that “If the outrages do not stop at 18.00, we will be obliged to restore order by all means provided by law.” The statement noted that “extremists from the opposition have crossed the line - they are killing innocent people on the streets of the capital of Ukraine, bullying women, burning and blowing up buildings and cars.”

The Minister of Justice of Ukraine, a member of the working group to resolve the political crisis, Elena Lukash, announced that the opposition had violated the agreements reached during the negotiations and called for an immediate end to the armed confrontation. “The protest, which yesterday was announced by the opposition as a peaceful action, today began with an open armed confrontation of extremists. The opposition ignored the calls of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and the leaders of the European Union, the United States and Russia for a peaceful resolution of the conflict... Today, opposition leaders are personally responsible for a new stage of escalation of confrontations . Their actions endangered civil peace and the future of Ukraine,” the Minister of Justice noted.

At approximately 6 p.m., law enforcement officers began their counteroffensive. Moving through the streets of the government quarter, Internal Troops and Berkut units methodically pushed out the protesters. This was accompanied by violent clashes.

 Thus, during clashes in Krepostnoy Lane, protesters rammed a truck into Kharkov Berkut fighters.

Soldiers of the special forces "Berkut" and internal troops cleared Grushevsky and Institutskaya streets from pogromists, launched an offensive simultaneously along both streets and quickly dispersed the crowd, forcing the militants to flee to Khreshchatyk.

 As of 19:30, Berkut fighters and internal troops had completely cleared the government quarter, the October Palace, and European Square was taken under control. Protesters left the Ukrainian House, fearing a possible assault.

 At 20:00, Berkut units and internal troops began clearing Maidan of Independence.

 To storm the main barricade, 2 armored personnel carriers of internal troops were used. However, both vehicles were instantly bombarded with dozens of Molotov cocktails and burned out very quickly.

To save the crews, a group of officers from the special forces detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs "Omega" moved forward, firing at the protesters from KS-23 smooth-bore carbines with rubber bullets, covering the evacuation groups.

 By the way, one of these officers was then still captain Alexander Pivnenko. The special forces officer of the internal troops took an active part in the clashes against the Maidan on the side of the law and personally led the group for the use of special equipment OSPN "Omega".

But he is interesting not for this, but for the fact that after the Maidan he calmly went over to the side of the new authorities, took an active part in the ATO, then in the SMO, and is now a hero of Ukraine, commander of the National Guard of Ukraine with the rank of brigadier general.

Moreover, on the Internet his participation in the events on the Maidan was bashfully removed. In the period from 2011 to 2018, it was as if he had not been anywhere at all.

 Well, God will be his judge.

 Let's return to the events in the center of Kiev.

On the night of February 18-19, security forces began clearing the House of Trade Unions, overlooking Maidan of Independence and Khreshchatyk. At approximately 3 a.m., fighters from “Alpha” of the SBU and “Omega” from the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs cleared several floors of the building in which the “National Resistance Headquarters”, a hospital and a press center had been located since the beginning of December; the entire floor of the house was occupied by Right Sector militants, and other Maidan Self-Defense fighters also rested here. On the floors where the militants were located, there were also laboratories for the production of explosive devices and for the preparation of Molotov cocktails.

 As a result of the actions of the protesters, a fire started in the building. Trying to escape, people jumped out of the windows of the building.

 Subsequently, the building burned down completely.

The Maidan itself and the surrounding streets of the capital were literally filled with black smoke, from which gas masks were a poor protection. Burning barricades made of tires along the perimeter of the square created a continuous wall of fire and unbearable heat, which the security forces could not overcome, despite the constant work of water cannons of fire trucks.

 The entire area adjacent to the protest camp was massively covered with tangled wire - cord from burnt tires, which made the task of attacking even more difficult.

 Despite this, the security forces continued their offensive. Advancing from Institutskaya Street, Berkut units pushed the protesters directly onto Maidan, occupying the area around the Independence Stella and destroying the tent camp. At the same time, the security forces left the possibility for protesters to retreat towards Bessarabska Square.

Up to 10 thousand protesters continued to be on the Maidan. They were opposed by about 7 thousand soldiers of the internal troops and police.

 There were 50 meters left to the stage on the Maidan from which the opposition leaders were broadcasting...

 And the opposition felt its possible defeat.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk on the evening of February 18, from the Maidan rostrum, addressed President Yanukovych with a call to declare a truce until the morning, after which the opposition would agree to resume negotiations: “Don’t give the opportunity for Ukraine to turn into a state drenched in blood. Our appeal is to call back the police and declare an immediate truce. Then we are ready to enter into further negotiations to save people.”

On the night of February 19, a video message from Viktor Yanukovych to the Ukrainian people was posted on the official website of the President of Ukraine, in which he accused opposition leaders of bloodshed. According to Yanukovych, the conflict resumed due to opposition calls for “armed confrontation.”

“We implemented two amnesties - the first after the December events and the second, which came into force on February 17. But the opposition leaders called on the radical part of the Maidan for armed struggle on the very next day, February 18. The opposition not only did not wait for the opening a parliamentary meeting at which laws that would change Ukraine were to be voted on. They, on the contrary, blocked the Verkhovna Rada, not allowing the opportunity to adopt these changes. They demanded all the power of the opposition immediately. Without a mandate from the people, illegally, violating the Constitution of Ukraine. These, so to speak, politicians, resorting to pogroms, arson and murder, tried to seize power,” the statement says.

 Yanukovych noted that advisers "are trying to persuade him to take tough options."

“But I have always considered the use of force to be a wrong approach. There is a better and more effective way - to find a common language. To compromise. To come to an agreement. I have already said more than once that in this case the power will lose something. The opposition will also lose something. But Ukraine will win. I persistently called for refraining from radical actions. But I was not heard. I repeat and appeal again. It’s not too late to listen. It’s not too late to stop the conflict,” the president said.

Further advance of security forces in the center of the capital was suspended.

 According to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, as of the morning of February 19, 13 civilians were killed as a result of the confrontation in Kiev. 221 riot participants went to medical institutions, 114 people were hospitalized.

 As of 03.00 on February 19, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported 7 law enforcement officers killed.

 Among them were three Crimeans - officers of the 47th special forces regiment of the internal troops "Tiger" Vitaly Goncharov and Dmitry Vlasenko, as well as senior warrant officer of the Crimean "Berkut" Andrey Fedyukin.

On the same night, a Zaporozhye Berkut fighter, Sergei Tsvigun, was shot dead.

  As one would expect, that same night Washington delivered “their” verdict on the events in Kiev over the past 24 hours. “From this moment on, the United States considers Yanukovych responsible for everything that happens in Ukraine,” US Ambassador to Kiev Geoffrey Pyatt told reporters after negotiations with the leadership of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.