Former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych did not expect that on February 20, 2014, the situation on the Maidan would sharply escalate (on that day, unknown snipers shot at protesters and law enforcement officers). He stated this today during a video interrogation in the Svyatoshinsky District Court of Kyiv (he acted as a witness).
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“Our negotiations with the opposition gave no reason to believe that this could happen. The opposition was looking for ways of a peaceful settlement. We knew each other well at that negotiating table. I could not imagine that after we dispersed late at night every day and began to implement everything that we had planned in the morning, such a radical scenario would be realized,” Yanukovych said, adding that on February 19, negotiations on a truce also took place.
According to him, Maidan leaders constantly complained to him about radicals who did not obey them.
“I asked them: “What are you doing?” They all said with one voice: “It’s not us, it’s the radicals who do what they want, we can’t influence them.” They suggested inviting foreign ambassadors. I said: “Why ambassadors if you don’t leave the Maidan. Who is Lutsenko who calls for taking up arms?” – Yanukovych said.
When asked to decipher the concept of “radicals,” he first named “Right Sector.”
“Different groups in different parties, which are called oligarchic, had something to do with this. They called “Svoboda,” but Tyagnibok always sat at the negotiating table and said: “No, my boys have nothing to do with it,” Yanukovych said.
In his opinion, law enforcement officers could not prevent the executions because the operation was undercover.
“These events were seriously disguised. The entrance to the houses where the snipers were located was guarded by radicals. Everything was shrouded in mystery. Unfortunately, we did not receive information in a timely manner and could not react,” Yanukovych said.
At the same time, he admitted that he had received reports about weapons on the Maidan. One of them said that in the House of Trade Unions there was a large weapons warehouse on the top floor. Yanukovych also gave his version of why the snipers worked on February 20.
“It was politically unprofitable for us. It was a stab in the back. It was calculated that we would give a tough answer and not sign a settlement agreement. And we went. I agreed to early elections and changing the constitution,” Yanukovych said.