”Slidstvo.Info”: the head of SBU department Ilya Vityuk filmed shootings on the Maidan by “Berkut”

On February 20, 2014, the head of the cyber security department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Brigadier General Ilya Vityuk, filmed how soldiers of the Berkut special police unit shot protesters on the Maidan in Kyiv during the Revolution of Dignity.

This is written by the project of "Slidstvo.Info" investigators. Journalists note that the information was confirmed to them by the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office, as well as the former head of Maidanʼs crime investigation department Serhii Horbatyuk.

"On one of the videos, at 3 minutes and 10 seconds from the Berkut side, namely at the corner of Bankova and Instytutska Streets, a man in civilian clothes and a dark cap appears. He films on his phone how employees of the ʼBerkutʼ special unit shoot at the protesters," the article says.

Journalists asked the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office who this person was, and they were told that the man in the video is an employee of SBU. He was questioned as a witness, but no useful information for the investigation was received from him.

Horbatiuk told reporters that the video shows Ilya Vityuk, who was an operative of SBU at the time. At the same time, he did not provide the investigation with a recording from his phone — he said that his phone was stolen in the gym, and he deleted the video from Instytutskaya before the theft.

Vityuk was interrogated as far back as 2019. He himself did not turn to the investigators for all these years, although he was supposed to do so by law.

• On February 20, 2014, during clashes with the police on Instytutska Street in the capital, 48 people were killed and more than 150 were injured. Most died from small arms used by law enforcement officers.
• It is not the first time that journalists are interested in Ilya Vityuk. On April 5, 2024, “Slidstvo.Info” journalists released an investigation, which stated that the Vityuk family owns real estate worth at least UAH 25.5 million at market value.
• After that, the Agency for Journalistic Investigations stated that representatives of the Military Commissariat tried to serve a summons to their journalist Shulgat on the instructions of a SBU employee. In this way, the special services allegedly wanted to "punish" the investigator. Journalists are sure that Vityuk was behind it.
• After that, SBU started an investigation, and Vityuk was suspended and sent to the front. The command of the Ground Forces began to check the two military commissars who tried to hand the journalist a summons.