Neo-Nazi Svoboda Party militants
Based on the release of a controversial leaked telephone conversation, we are now in a position to confirm that the Kiev Maidan Independence Square February 20 sniper shootings directed against innocent civilians were ordered by opposition leaders integrated by Neo-Nazi elements.
Acknowledged in a leaked telephone conversation between EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and the Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet, the Maidan opposition rather than president Yanukovych was behind the sniper killings on February 20.
These shooting were directed against both opposition protesters and police.
The telephone file was apparently uploaded by officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) loyal to president Viktor Yanukovych indicating that the power structures of the coalition government are fragile, to say the least.
Below is the excerpt of the transcript of the leaked telephone conversation (emphasis added):
Urmas Paet: “There is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition,”
Catherine Ashton: “I think we do want to investigate. I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh,”
According to RT: The telephone call “took place after Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Paet visited Kiev on February 25 at the peak of clashes between the pro-EU protesters and security forces in the Ukrainian capital. Paet also recalled his conversation with a doctor who treated those shot by snipers in Kiev. She said that both protesters and police were shot at by the same people.”
Urmas Paet “And second, what was quite disturbing, this same Olga [Bogomolets] told as well that all the evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among policemen and then people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides,” the Estonian FM stressed.
Catherine Ashton; “Well, yeah…that’s, that’s terrible.”
Urmas Paet: So that she then also showed me some photos she said that as a medical doctor she can say that it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it’s really disturbing that now the new coalition, that they don’t want to investigate what exactly happened,”
While the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton does not have “blood on her hands”, she has had frequent meetings with Oleh Tyahnybok, leader of the Neo-Nazi Svoboda Party, who in all likelihood was involved in the sniper killings.
“Well, yeah…that’s, that’s terrible.” says Catherine Ashton. But what is the followup? Will the matter be debated by the EU Commission or will it be hushed up?
(Catherine Ashton center with Svoboda Leader Oleh Tyahnybok, left)
The February 20th Sniper Killings: What Happened?
Acknowledged by media reports, more than twenty opposition Maidan protesters were killed by professional snipers on February 20. This was not a spontaneous event resulting from clashes between protesters and riot police, nor was it marked by an exchange of gunfire between the police and the Neo-Nazi militia.
The sniper killings had the hallmarks of a carefully planned operation. They happened within ‘the space of a few hours”. They were carefully timed. The killings coincided with the meetings of President Viktor Yanukovych with a high level EU delegation.
In a bitter irony, these targeted killings were used as a pretext to topple the government and issue an arrest warrant directed against president Yanukovych on charges of “mass murder” of Maidan protesters.
Now confirmed by the leaked telephone conversation, the purpose of the sniper killings was to provide a pretext for “regime change”.