Russian Influence on the Events of the Revolution of Dignity: Facts, Evidence, and Punishment

On November 21, 2013, the Euromaidan protests began in Ukraine. They were a response to the government's decision to suspend preparations for signing the Association Agreement with the EU. The protests escalated after being dispersed on November 30 and continued until February 2014. Security forces made several attempts to disperse the protesters. 

According to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, during the Revolution of Dignity, 107 people died, and another 2,500 were injured. Most of the deaths occurred in February 2014. Later, the deceased participants of the protests were called the Heavenly Hundred. 

Euromaidan became not only a fight for a European future but also a protest against corruption, government violence, and the usurpation of state institutions. Svidomi covers the Revolution of Dignity, the investigation of the Maidan cases, and Russia’s involvement in the events. 

On November 18, 2013, the European Union did not make a final decision on signing the Association Agreement with Ukraine. On November 21, the government of Mykola Azarov announced the suspension of preparations for its signing. This decision, made after a meeting between Viktor Yanukovych and Vladimir Putin in Sochi, provoked public outrage. 

That same day, journalist Mustafa Nayyem called on people to protest. In the evening, about 1,500 people gathered on Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti). Within a few days, the protests spread across Ukraine, and on November 24, the first mass rally demanding the government's resignation took place in Kyiv. 

On November 28-29, the agreement with the EU was not signed at the summit in Vilnius. In response, the demonstrators declared an indefinite protest. On the night of November 29-30, 2013, the special police unit "Berkut" brutally dispersed the demonstrators, beating dozens of students. This provoked a new wave of protests, and on December 1, up to 500,000 people took to the streets in central Kyiv. 

At the same time, protests took place in many cities across the country. The largest demonstration outside of Kyiv was in Lviv, with about 40,000 participants. More than 8,000 people protested in Lutsk, more than 5,000 in Ternopil, and about 5,000 in Chernivtsi. There were also demonstrations in Rivne, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Khmelnytskyi, Odesa, Vinnytsia, Uzhhorod, Kropyvnytskyi, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zhytomyr. 

Throughout December and January, the government tried to suppress the protests by passing so-called "anti-protest laws". On January 19, violent clashes began on Hrushevskyi Street, resulting in the first deaths. 

On January 22, Serhii Nihoian, Mykhailo Zhyznevskyi, and Roman Senyk from the Lviv region (who later died of serious injuries in hospital on January 25) were killed. That same day, the tortured body of Lviv activist Yuriy Verbytskyi was found in a forest near Kyiv. On January 23 and 24, protests spread across Ukraine. 

On February 18, protesters were pushed back to Maidan during clashes, with more than 20 people killed by gunfire. On February 19, protesters held their positions on Maidan while security forces began preparing for an "anti-terrorist operation."

Meanwhile, negotiations between opposition leaders and President Yanukovych remained inconclusive. On February 20, protesters seized the Ukrainian House, the October Palace, and pushed security forces back to the government quarter. However, snipers positioned on rooftops around the Maidan opened fire on the demonstrators. Not only the security forces but also specially recruited criminals, known as "titushky," acted against the activists. 

On February 21, the parliament overwhelmingly (386 votes) reinstated Ukraine's 2004 constitution provisions and passed an amnesty law for protesters. It also implemented provisions of the UN Convention Against Corruption. On the night of February 21-22, Viktor Yanukovych and his inner circle fled to Russia. 

In response, 328 members of parliament voted in favour of a resolution declaring the "self-dismissal" of Ukraine's president and setting new elections for May 25, 2014. 

According to the Advisory Group of Lawyers, which includes lawyers representing victims of the Revolution of Dignity, there are currently over 200 criminal cases at various stages of consideration. 

Nearly 300 people have been indicted or are under investigation, including former President Viktor Yanukovych, former ministers, judges, and former members of the Berkut special forces. 

According to the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation, former high-ranking officials are accused of organising the killing of 67 citizens and injuring 887 people between February 18 and 20, 2014. 

Since 2014, the courts have convicted 76 people, 26 imprisoned. A total of 68 sentences have become final. However, according to Oksana Mykhalevych, a lawyer representing victims in the Maidan cases, most of these guilty verdicts have not resulted in actual punishment due to the statute of limitations. 

In a speech on February 9, 2023, Vladimir Putin said: "We did not start hostilities, we are trying to end them. These hostilities were started by nationalists in Ukraine and those who supported them in 2014 when they carried out a coup. That's where it all started. After that, the events in Crimea and Donbas followed." 

Thus, one of Russia's narratives about Maidan is based on the claim that the uprising led to a "civil war" from which Russia supposedly had to "protect" Ukraine. This tactic aims to portray the temporary occupation of Ukraine not as an act of aggression and violence but as a "forced step". 

However, a year before the full-scale invasion, in 2013, Russian military officials had already introduced the concept of hybrid warfare. An article signed by the chief of the Russian General Staff, Valerii Herasimov, stated: "The emphasis in methods of confrontation is shifting to the widespread use of political, economic, informational, humanitarian and other non-military measures, carried out with the participation of the protest potential of the population."

According to Doctor of Sociology Oleksandr Stehnii, Russia has been trying to tarnish the image of Maidan by promoting the narrative that a coup took place in Ukraine. 

"Over time, and even now, there are and will be many attempts from Russia to discredit Maidan. The main narrative is that it was a coup. As Yanukovych said, 'No one overthrew me; I left because my life was in danger. Younger generations must understand that this was a massive social protest, not a coup. And it's important to show that despite the scale of the demonstrations in Kyiv, there was order and organisation," said the sociologist. 

Russian propaganda claims that a "third force" — snipers who allegedly shot both protesters and police — was present during the Maidan protests. It blames the so-called "Georgian snipers of Saakashvili," who, according to these narratives, acted on the orders of Andrii Parubii, Volodymyr Parasiuk, and Serhii Pashynskyi. 

Since 2016, Kyiv's Sviatoshyn district court has been trying five former members of the Berkut riot police's so-called "black company" for the killing of Maidan protesters: Serhii Zinchenko, Pavlo Abroskin, Oleh Yanishchevskyi, Serhii Tamura, and Oleksandr Marynchenko. In October 2023, the court acquitted Serhii Tamura. Oleksandr Marynchenko was sentenced to five years, already serving in pre-trial detention. The other three defendants were convicted in absentia: Pavlo Abroskin and Serhii Zinchenko received 15-year sentences for killing protesters on Instytutska Street, while Oleh Yanishchevskyi, the deputy regimental commander, was sentenced to life imprisonment. 

Before the verdict, these individuals were released from custody and exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners of war in late 2019. 

For years, lawyers for the former policemen tried to convince the jury that the Maidan protesters were not killed by Berkut officers but by a "third force" - unknown snipers shooting from the Ukraine Hotel. Initially, the defence argued that the snipers were controlled by the opposition at the time, but in 2017, an Italian pseudo-documentary titled Ukraine: The Hidden Truth was released. The film focused on the alleged "Georgian snipers" who, according to the narrative, shot both Maidan protesters and Berkut officers. 

However, several forensic and ballistic investigations into various criminal cases have failed to confirm the existence of these snipers. "There is no evidence that any Maidan protesters or Berkut officers were killed or wounded from the Ukraine Hotel," said prosecutor Ihor Zemskov. 

Zemskov added that the investigation conducted over a hundred sectoral forensic examinations to determine the exact origin of the shots fired at the protesters. None of these examinations pointed to the Ukraine Hotel. 

"These forensic reports show that the sector of fire aimed at the demonstrators was the upper part of Instytutska Street. There is not a single forensic report confirming that anyone from the Ukraine Hotel was killed or wounded," Zemskov insisted. 

In the fall of 2023, the court received indictments against 11 additional officers of the Berkut special forces unit for crimes committed during the Maidan. In January 2024, nine more officers were indicted.

During the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, key positions in Ukraine's security agencies were filled by individuals who later fled to Russia. For example, in early 2013, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine was Russian citizen Oleksandr Yakymenko, who fled to Russia in 2014. In 2022, during the full-scale invasion, he headed the occupation security service in Kherson. 

The SSU accuses Yakymenko of organising the torture of Ukrainian citizens in Kherson. Working for the FSB, the former SSU chief became the head of the occupation's state security service in the Kherson region. In addition, Yakymenko's predecessor, Ihor Kalinin, who headed the SSU in 2012-2013, also fled to Russia. 

On December 24, 2012, Pavlo Lebediev was appointed Minister of Defense of Ukraine. He left Kyiv on February 21, 2014, before his official resignation. A month later, on March 18, he was seen in the Kremlin at the ceremony marking the so-called "annexation" of Crimea (Russia does not consider the annexation of Crimea to be forced annexation — ed.). In 2015, he joined the board of directors of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. 

Similarly, the former deputy secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, Volodymyr Sivkovych, has been in Russia since March 2014. Ukraine's State Investigation Service accuses him of organising the violent suppression of a protest near Independence Square on November 30, 2013. "He was directly involved in orchestrating the beating of young protesters who were advocating Ukraine's European integration. Today, he is one of the leaders of an anti-Ukrainian movement created by Russian intelligence services," the State Bureau of Investigation reported.  

After fleeing to Russia, Sivkovych, according to the State Bureau of Investigation, worked for the FSB and "coordinated work with Ukrainian members of a group that collects and transfers classified information to Russia while attempting to influence personnel decisions in Ukraine's security agencies". 

In total, the State Bureau of Investigation has identified more than 20 former Berkut officers currently fighting on the side of Russia against Ukraine.  

On April 12, 2014, a group of militants led by Russian citizen Igor Girkin (Strelkov) seized the Sloviansk police department. Other cities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions were similarly occupied through hybrid warfare.  "If our unit had not arrived in Donbas (Donetsk and Luhansk regions — ed.)  and become the core of the resistance, the core of the 'Russian Spring,' the 'Russian Spring' would have likely been crushed at its inception," Girkin later admitted, confirming the Russian role in the conflict. 

However, when discussing the violence on Maidan, Russian propaganda ignores the attacks on Euromaidan protesters by pro-government titushky thugs who operated with police support in Mariinskyi Park on February 18. 

In 2014, Vladimir Putin outlined his version of events, claiming that Yanukovych feared persecution and sought refuge in Russia. "I won't hide it — we helped him get to Crimea, where he stayed for several days... Yes, I'll say it clearly — he asked to be evacuated to Russia, and we did it," Putin admitted. 

The Revolution of Dignity became a symbol of Ukraine's struggle for freedom, dignity, and a European future. Despite numerous investigations, however, many of those responsible for killing protesters have escaped justice, with some hiding in Russia or even fighting against Ukraine.