The untold story of the Maidan massacre - BBC

[newthinking]

The untold story of the Maidan massacre

By Gabriel Gatehouse BBC News

A day of bloodshed on Kiev's main square, nearly a year ago, marked the end of a winter of protest against the government of president Viktor Yanukovych, who soon afterwards fled the country. More than 50 protesters and three policemen died. But how did the shooting begin? Protest organisers have always denied any involvement - but one man told the BBC a different story.



It's early in the morning, 20 February, 2014. Kiev's Maidan square is divided - on one side the riot police, the protesters on the other.

This has been going on for more than two months now. But events are about to come to a head. By the end of the day, more than 50 people will be dead, many of them gunned down in the street by security forces.

The violence will lead to the downfall of Ukraine's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych. Moscow will call 20 February an armed coup, and use it to justify the annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in Eastern Ukraine.

The protest leaders, some of whom now hold positions of power in the new Ukraine, insist full responsibility for the shootings lies with the security forces, acting on behalf of the previous government.

But one year on, some witnesses are beginning to paint a different picture.

When the shooting started early on the morning of the 20th, Sergei says, he was escorted to the Conservatory, and spent some 20 minutes before 07:00 firing on police, alongside a second gunman.

His account is partially corroborated by other witnesses. That morning, Andriy Shevchenko, then an opposition MP and part of the Maidan movement, had received a phone call from the head of the riot police on the square.

"He calls me and says, 'Andriy, somebody is shooting at my guys.' And he said that the shooting was from the Conservatory."

Full story here: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31359021

[Warpy]

1. Some of the video at the time showed protestors firing guns

that looked like they might have been WWII vintage, mostly pistols, one or two long guns.

[Bugenhagen]

2. the overwhelming majority of protesters were peaceful

I totally get that. But that doesn't mean that they all were.

Here is a video of not-peaceful protesters a full month before the shooting started:

I can't imagine what would have happened at Ferguson if a few protesters had started throwing molotov cocktails at the police.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

3. Whatever was behind the Feb. 20th sniper shootings, it was pretty much a tragic moot point.

Yanukovych had already been packing to leave for a day at that point, so as horrific as it was, it didn't change the already changed game.

[newthinking]

4. Of course he was preparing for "what if". He knew that the west was supporting

violent groups and anything could happen.

It does not mean his actions were voluntary.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Just because it wasn't his preferred course of action doesn't mean it wasn't voluntary.

He left in his own fleet of helicopters. He had his house's most valuable possessions packed away in his own moving trucks. He left with his own entourage and no one else. He ended up in the place of his own choosing. And he took his sweet old time in doing all of this--three days. Three days in which over the course dozens of people died for whatever reason and when an EU deal was negotiated that would have left him in power. And yet he still left.

He made a calculated decision to leave. A calculated choice is a voluntary choice, no matter whether it is the desired one or not.

[newthinking]

5. This was all known last March - But overcome by coordinated propaganda

Youtube had a number of video's showing the direction of fire and it was pretty obvious the direction the shots came from. And the pictures the BBC used in this story were available on the internet back in March.

So one good question? Why was there no investigative reporting and just a single narrative in the MSM? Especially given the leaked phone call? If that does not make people realize that the MSM is not interested in presenting the truth I don't know what will.

Here is just one of the many videos showing the angles and informing that the shots came from the building that Maidan was in.

Interestingly: The tree with the forensic proof was removed.