The case of the Maidan: the prosecutor's office identified two «Berkut» people who fired the first shots at the protesters in February 2014

The Prosecutor General's Office identified the two law enforcement officers who fired the first shots from pump-action rifles at the demonstrators on February 20, 2014.

This was reported by the press service of the department.

It was established that the former company commander of the Berkut special forces in Sevastopol and one of his subordinates opened fire on the protesters first on February 20, 2014, killing three and injuring three others, which provoked further fatal shooting by law enforcement officers.

«Under the procedural guidance of prosecutors of the General Prosecutor's Office, sufficient evidence was collected and two former law enforcement officers, who fired the first shots at the protesters on February 20, 2014, were notified of suspicion,» the message reads.

According to the investigation, the company commander of the «Berkut» special unit and his subordinates were on February 20, 2014 at around 9 a.m. on Instytutska Street in Kyiv near the pedestrian bridge. Acting in concert with the law enforcement officers of the Kyiv «Berkut» special unit, they used firearms against the participants of the protest actions — Fort-500 pump-action rifles equipped with cartridges with lead buckshot.

As a result of such actions of the suspects, three demonstrators were killed, and three more received gunshot wounds of varying degrees of severity.

These crimes were preceded by further mass intentional murders and attempted murders of participants in protest actions, committed by policemen of the so-called «black company» and internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine using rifled automatic and sniper firearms.

In total, on the morning of February 20, 2014, 48 protesters were killed, and more than 90 were wounded by gunfire.

After these events, the suspects returned to the city of Sevastopol, where they subsequently sided with Russia and contributed to the annexation of the peninsula.

Earlier, MDI employees referred to the court indictments against 20 former policemen of the special purpose company «Berkut», who used firearms against participants of peaceful protest actions on February 20, 2014, which led to the death of unarmed activists.