4 Maidan activists have been seeking justice in the courts for 10 years. Instead, they found true friendship and despair. The story of the “Maidan survivors” who still stand there

1

In one of the rooms of the “Ukraina Hotel”, 47-year-old Vasyl Pazyniak was pouring cognac into glasses. His colleagues — all the opposition MPs — were gathered at the table. The calendar showed November 21, 2013, and they were celebrating St. Michaelʼs Day. They were raising toasts to the saintʼs patronage and "the very beginning". A few hours earlier, the MPs had blocked the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada. Mykola Azarovʼs government refused to sign an association agreement with the EU and began a dialogue with Russia and the countries of the Customs Union.

People began to gather on Independence Square. Around 10 oʼclock in the evening, Pazyniak went to the [Independence] Square. It was raining. 100-200 Kyiv citizens gathered near the Independence Monument. They held Ukrainian flags and — despite everything — were laughing. Pazyniak walked among them and greeted them. 9 years ago, on these days, the Orange Revolution began.

Sculptor Valeriy Dumansky (55 years old), physicist Oleksandr Luts (57 years old) and businessman Andriy Klymenko (50 years old) came to Maidan after work. They were not acquaintances, but they had common motives — they supported European integration and despised President Viktor Yanukovych for his criminal past and usurpation of power.

Klymenko also went to Maidan at the call of his heart. He is a long-time and ardent fan of Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been in Kachanivska colony since 2011. The man sought her release.

Sculptor Valeriy Dumansky and physicist Oleksandr Luts were interested in politics, but not enough to live by the news. However, even their Yanukovych government got fed up, cause it “mocked the people” [in their opinion].

Luts says that at first, young people gathered on the Maidan, and “people older than me” — near the Ukrainian House, under the flags of Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s party. Dumansky says that “all we need now is the old Maidan breed” for a nationwide protest.

Then the “Berkut” beat up students, and two weeks later, on December 11, stormed the tent city for the first time. In response, barricades began to be erected there.

That night, the MP Pazyniak stood with the Afghan Hundred, who threatened to douse everyone with gasoline and set them on fire. In front of them were soldiers of the internal troops — “20-year-olds”, behind whom stood the “cowardly Berkut”.

In the morning, the security fighters dispersed. Pazyniak believes that the Maidan was saved then by the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland. She came to negotiate with Yanukovych and threatened to impose sanctions against members of the “Party of Regions” for violent actions against the Maidan protesters.

Pazyniak was very different from his parliamentary colleagues in his “groundness”. He rode the subway, dressed normally, like all other people, and rarely refused anyone. Voters and patients (he is a pediatric neurosurgeon) called him directly around the clock.

During the Revolution, churches in the Lviv region handed him church donations against a receipt. Pazyniak used them to buy food and firewood for the Maidan, and put demonstrators in deputies’ rooms so that they could wash and sleep. The maids complained that “your revolutionaries” came black as hell from tire soot and smoke.

For the four men, this was not their first protest. They jokingly call themselves “professional revolutionaries”. In 1990, they participated in the Revolution on Granite, in 2004 — in the Orange Revolution, and “were always certain of our victory”. And in 2014, “everything felt different, [it felt] like the last battle”, says Pazynyak.

Klymenko adds that people “expected provocations from Russia”, remembered the separatist congress in Severodonetsk in 2004, but “they could not imagine in their worst nightmare” that the Russian president would start a war. They believed that “the US would protect us”, because Ukraine had security guarantees in the form of the Budapest Memorandum.

The most brutal violence against participants in the Revolution of Dignity lasted for the last three days of the protest — from February 18 to 20. The security fighters called it the “Anti-Terrorist Operation”. Mass beatings and shootings of people began at noon on February 18 near the parliament. Vasyl, Andriy, Valeriy, and Oleksandr were injured there.

For many years, the investigation has been establishing the details of those events. The authorities have been preparing for the final clearing of Maidan since January 2014. There was no date for the start of the operation. A prosecutor at the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office Oleksandr Suprun tells Babel that the security fighters just were looking for an excuse to make their actions look like a legitimate response to aggression.

The situation began to spiral on the evening of February 16. The protesters said they would peacefully march to parliament on the morning of the 18th. That day, MPs were supposed to repeal Yanukovychʼs constitutional reform.

Suprun says that the entire next day, the Maidan leaders negotiated with the security fighters through their channels — "let us protest". They replied: "Donʼt even try to go [out]."

According to the investigation, at about 5 oʼclock in the evening on February 17, law enforcement officers arrived at the government building. Among them was one of the heads of the Kyiv police Yuriy Spasskykh. In a minibus, they brought Russian lead buckshot for pump-action rifles and flash-bang grenades (special means). They were distributed without registration or documents to the fighters of 5 “Berkut” units.

Shovkovychna Street after the "Berkut" attack on protesters, February 18, 2014.

Максим Люков

[It was] before the violence began: a law enforcement officer was injured during a confrontation outside the parliament, February 18, 2014.

Getty Images / «Babel'»

Confrontation between Maidan protesters and "Berkut" on Instytutska Street, February 18, 2014.

Getty Images / «Babel'»

On February 18, at 7 in the morning, the security fighters received an order from the headquarters: the peaceful march should not reach the Verkhovna Rada. The approaches to the parliament were blocked with trucks, and security fighters were everywhere.

At 8 in the morning, a column of people left the Maidan. They climbed higher and higher along Instytutska Street, trying to bypass the law enforcement officers, went out to Kriposny Lane, and then — to Mariinsky Park, and again ran into the law enforcement officersʼ cordon.

In the park, on the other side of the barricades, stood young men — "titushki". They threw stones and sticks. The marchers pressed against the police. Isolated fights and stampedes broke out. At 1 oʼclock in the afternoon, the Lviv and Kharkiv units of the "Berkut" began to attack people on orders. They were joined by other units of the special forces.

Physicist Luts ended up in Kriposny Lane that day by chance. He had come to the Arsenal factory on business and saw, like, a “sea of people”. He recalls that the security fighters attacked with bats and metal pipes. Someone was shooting and dropping flash-bang grenades from buildings onto the heads of the Maidan protesters.

A man fell next to Valeriy, and he covered him with his own [body], protecting him from the security forces. They began to beat him on the back. The physicist shouted them “bastards!”:

“If I had cursed in Ukrainian, they would have beaten me [to death],” he is sure.

Kriposny Lane, where 4 men were killed on February 18, 2014. Valeriy shows the place where he covered [with his own] a murdered Maidan protester.

hromadske / Скриншот / Youtube

Dmytro Vaga / "Babel"

Later it turned out that Valeriy was covering Volodymyr Kishchuk, who died from a gunshot to the back of the head. Valeriy had two broken ribs. That day, three people were shot in Kriposny Lane, and a fourth participant in the march died under the wheels of a truck.

Sculptor Valeriy Dumansky was guarding the Maidan stronghold on the corner of Instytutska and Sadova during the peaceful march. He heard explosions and gunshots. Then he himself fell from a gunshot to the shoulder. The bullet did not penetrate soft tissue, but it shattered bones. Doctors operated on him for 8 hours.

Valeriy was shot at the corner of Instytutska and Sadova.

Мстислав Чернов / digitalmaidan.org

Valeriy shows the place where he was injured.

Dmytro Vaga / "Babel"

Andriy Klymenko foresaw a fight and wisely put on a ski helmet. He was very late for the peaceful march — his friends joke that Andriy is never on time — but he did make it to his fight. He was beaten three times. The security fighters ran up to him in different groups. They kicked and beat him with batons. He wanted to crawl away somewhere to hide, but he couldn’t feel his legs or arms.

"I was lying on the ground and didnʼt understand: why I studied at the university, then had a postgraduate study as PG student, to now to be killed by some bulls in the center of Kyiv? If I had a gun, I would have fired," he says.

Andriy had two broken arms, ribs, and his entire body was blue from hematomas. A prison truck was parked not far from him. The “Berkut” officers were dumping the bloodied and semi-conscious Maidan protesters there.

The MP Pazyniak ran from the parliament to provide assistance and persuaded the security fighters to let him inside — “not all of them were bastards”.

Andriy Klymenko was beaten on Instytutska Street near a high-rise building. Compare how this place looked on February 18, 2014, and how it looks now.

Getty Images / «Babel'»

Dmytro Vaga / "Babel"

"Berkut" did not let the ambulance pass for a long time, dragging people by the arms on the ground. The former deputy recalls that at one old man, covered in blood, they shouted: "This is the initiator!".

Near the parliament, from the side of the security forces, he saw a man in civilian clothes who took a weapon out of the trunk — "I couldnʼt believe that this was reality." Then they started beating him. Pazyniak rolled on the ground "like a ball". They shouted at him: "Bitch, you will be responsible for our dead and wounded." He came to his senses in the ambulance, with bruised internal organs and a traumatic brain injury.

Doctors wanted to send Pazyniak to the Feofania clinic (for MPs), but he was afraid that "he would definitely be killed there" and ran away. He hid in his friendʼs house until the victory of the Maidan — "the police were looking for me, and it is unknown how it could have ended."

Shovkovychna Street, where the MP Pazyniak was beaten.

Мстислав Чернов / digitalmaidan.org

Mr. Pazyniak shows the place where he was knocked down.

Dmytro Vaga / "Babel"

That day, for the first time in the history of Kyiv, the metro was stopped. Roads leading into the capital were blocked. Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka blamed opposition leaders for the deaths. Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko denied the use of firearms by security fighters.

At 7:52 PM, the storming of Maidan began. Two armored personnel carriers and water cannons drove down Khreshchatyk. The security forces used loudspeakers to ask women and children to leave the square. The security fighters followed the vehicles, throwing flash-bang grenades and shooting — prosecutor Suprun recounts the events of February 18. The SBU special unit "Alpha" stormed the House of Trade Unions, and it caught fire.

11 500 law enforcement officers participated in the violence that lasted from February 18 to the night of the 19th. 796 protesters were injured. 19 people died, mostly from gunshots. 9 law enforcement officers also died from firearms. There were also wounded among the security forces (for example, at about 8 in the evening near the Zhovtnevy Palace, Yuriy Spasskykh was shot, and he was taken to the hospital).

The assault continued on February 19, and on the morning of February 20, it reached its peak — at 9 oʼclock, “Berkut” special forces from the “Black Company” shot 48 people with Kalashnikov assault rifles. In the evening, the parliament banned the security forces from conducting an anti-terrorist operation.

On the night of February 21, Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders signed an agreement in the Presidential Administration, according to which Yanukovych was to remain president until the end of the year. The Maidan did not support the agreement. In the morning, the protesters reported an armed offensive. At night, Yanukovych fled from his Kyiv residence to Kharkiv.

On February 22, the parliament regained its powers, all participants in the Revolution were amnestied, Yanukovych was removed from power, and the speaker of the parliament Oleksandr Turchynov became the acting president. The Revolution of Dignity ended. Funerals and investigative actions began.

During the protests on the Maidan, 72 people died and 1 299 were injured.

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Andriy Klymenko came to give his first testimony at the Prosecutorʼs Office with plaster casts on both hands. His family "spoon-fed" him, and for almost 6 months he worked on hands that didnʼt work at all.

Sculptor Dumansky underwent surgery on his right shoulder twice — his arm could not be raised. The MP Pazyniak treated his spine. The first operation lasted more than five hours, and there was a question of whether he would be able to walk. Due to health problems, he refused to run for re-election to parliament.

Volunteers offered scientist Luts the chance to go abroad for treatment, but he said that “there are people who are more beaten, help them”. In 2015, he resigned from the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine because he could not find a common language with the management.

“They said: ʼFirst you work, then — we pay [the money]ʼ.”

At the institute, he studied sensor science. Together with 20 scientists, he worked on a sensor that measures pressure, vibration, and other indicators. After his dismissal, he was invited to work in the USA and Russia. To the latter, he wrote: “I have no business with you.” With a year left before retirement, the man decided to devote his time to his granddaughter, who was in elementary school.

During breaks between treatment, the Maidan activists took turns coming to the Prosecutorʼs Office and giving testimony. Pazyniak recalls that they "had no chance" to meet and get to know each other there— "hundreds and hundreds of victims came, and there were many investigators working".

After the Revolution, SBU and the police burned documents, the “Berkut” officers scattered and destroyed their weapons. An explosion occurred at the location of their deployment in Lviv.

During the attacks on Maidan, the security fighters hid their faces with balaclavas and helmets — “and how can you recognize them”, asks Luts. He took pictures of the security forces on his phone and wanted to pass the pictures on to prosecutors, but “a young boy of 23 said that they had enough of everything”.

Later, it turned out that the Prosecutorʼs Office had a catastrophic lack of evidence to identify the security forces.

"Everyone knew which ʼBerkutʼ units were there, but thatʼs not enough for the court," a military and former prosecutor Serhiy Horbatyuk tells Babel. The most important things in an investigation are the first investigative actions, and they were carried out by the law enforcement system, which was attacking Maidan a few hours ago — they destroyed and falsified evidence.

Former "Berkut" fighters blocked the building of the Main Investigation Department of the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office and called Russian television with them. Before that, prosecutors arrested three "Black Company" fighters, April 3, 2014.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema at a meeting with President Petro Poroshenko.

Віталій Ярема / Facebook

Prosecutor Serhiy Horbatyuk in his office.

Getty Images / «Babel'»

The Ministry of Internal Affairs “gave answers” that it could not help, although it was already headed by one of the Maidan leaders Arsen Avakov. Horbatyuk recalls that when the “Berkut” officers were summoned for interrogations, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs complained that this “negatively affected their psychological state”, called the accusations far-fetched, and did not dismiss the security officers from law enforcement agencies.

The political elite fled to Russia — Yanukovych, Azarov, members of the government, heads of SBU, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Although, the so-called “middle echelons” — the security forces who carried out orders — remained in Ukraine in 2014.

They began to flee later, when the Prosecutorʼs Office began to indict them, but the courts released them from pre-trial detention centers after several months of arrest. Senior Lieutenant of militia Spasskykh disappeared immediately after the Revolution, and no one knew what happened to him.

The new Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema once asked Horbatyuk if he really wanted to arrest everyone: “They say, three ʼBerkutʼ officers were detained. Isn’t that enough?” Already in September 2014, only three people in the prosecutor’s office were dealing with Maidan cases. All the others (there were over 30 of them) “were formally counted”.

To prevent the Maidan cases from having statutes of limitations, human rights activists asked parliament to make appropriate changes to the Criminal Code, and ideally to vote for the article “crimes against humanity” so that murders and attacks would be investigated from this perspective, recalls human rights activist and Nobel laureate Oleksandra Matviychuk. The parliamentarians were persuaded for several years — “but they were sabotaging” and did not do it.

In 2016, prosecutors brought the first 8 cases against “Berkut” officers to court and immediately received a decision. A soldier from the Kharkiv unit was sentenced to a suspended sentence. He admitted that he attacked a Maidan protester, who fell and died in Kriposny Lane on February 18. This was the first and — as it turned out later — the only sentence to date for a law enforcement officer for the events of that day.

3

In the spring of 2016, Dumansky felt that he had regained strength in his injured arm, began to do pull exercises, and he did 18 pull-ups. Sports helped. He followed the news from the ATO and signed up for a patriotic organization that taught civilians self-defense — "I felt that the war would be long."

He says that many "guys under 45" from Maidan went to fight. He maintained friendships with them and admired those who returned from abroad to defend the country. One of them was the opera singer Vasyl Slipak.

At the end of June 2016, he died in the Luhansk region. Dumansky was so impressed by this that he decided to make a memorial plaque in his honor. He invited his sculptor-friend to work. They raised money and suggested that the family place the plaque at the Kyiv Conservatory on Maidan. But the family refused, and "that board [plaque] isnʼt there".

At about the same time, Dumansky received a summons to appear in court. The trials against the leaders of the Kharkiv and Lviv “Berkut” units — Vladyslav Lukash and Rostyslav Patselyak — began. Luts, Klymenko, and Pazyniak (as well as over 60 other victims) received similar summonses.

Lukash and Patselyak were accused of abuse of power, which led to serious consequences on February 18 in Kriposny Lane and on Instytutska Street. The maximum sentence is 10 years. There was no mention of shootings or beatings of protesters, because prosecutors [still] were collecting evidence.

They were tried separately, and this surprised the victims. The Maidan survivors wanted to see their assailants together in the judicial “cell”. The prosecutors shrugged their shoulders in response — they said, this is [how] our laws [works]. 50-70 people came to the first sessions, and not out of curiosity. They were all victims. People did not fit in the hall, so they listened from the corridor, and then “we were quickly grounded”, says sculptor Dumansky.

The judges could not hold preparatory hearings for a year — the defendants, their lawyer Natalia Voznyuk, or the judges themselves did not come. The victims came to the hearings from other cities, "often even did not know where the court was located", wasted money and time, and went home disappointed.

Rostyslav Patselyak and lawyer Natalia Voznyuk.

Ganna Mamonova / "Babel"

Vladyslav Lukash and Vozniuk.

Олександр Тимошенко / Facebook

Pazyniak says that over the years, many people “became tired and disappointed”. He went to court between patient appointments. After serving as an MP and receiving treatment, he resumed his medical practice.

Although, the defendants and judges continued to “play truant” — they were often “sick”, distracted by other lawsuits, went on business trips, and “even waited for lawyer Voznyuk from the decree”, says Pazyniak, calling it a “diabolical conspiracy”. He has long since stopped choosing words to describe the “freak-out situation and collapse of the judicial system”.

Pazyniak says that the hearings in the case against Patselyk were especially often canceled — “even our prosecutor was absent”. Klymenko adds that this prosecutor “could come hung-over to the hearing”. He smelled of alcohol, sometimes he was staggering. He even was not removed from the case immediately.

At those rare meetings that were held, it was found out that the former head of the Kharkiv “Berkut” Lukash works as the deputy chief of the Sumy city police (information as of 2018, he is not working there now).

Patselyak resigned from law enforcement and went to work for Rynat Akhmetovʼs “Metinvest” as a security specialist. They were only held in pre-trial detention for several months in 2015 at the beginning of the investigation. Lukash sued the ECHR for moral compensation in the amount of €2 000 for the arrest.

4

The Maidan survivors who suffered on February 18 on Instytutska and in Kriposny Lane have a tradition of meeting on the eve of this date. They celebrate it as their second birthday. Luts says that also prosecutors meet with them on these days and “talk about their successes”.

In 2023 , “our Vasyl” took the floor at such a meeting: “the state of affairs in the court is catastrophic”, in a year the statute of limitations will expire, and there will be no verdicts for Lukash and Patselyak. The meeting was held at the Ukrainian House, and the newly appointed Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Khomenko came to it for the first time.

"He listened to us carefully and said that the cases of the Maidan activists are a priority, because the great war against Ukraine began with the Maidan. We had not heard anything like that from prosecutors before," says Pazyniak.

This meeting is considered by the Maidan survivors to be “a turning point” and “positive”. After it, new trials began against the old defendants: Patselyak, Lukash, and others were accused of premeditated murder, infliction of grievous bodily harm, and organizing a terrorist attack — “finally, they are all on the same bench”.

Prosecutor Suprun explains these changes differently. After the full-scale invasion, the worldview of some former law enforcement officers changed, and they began to testify. The prosecutor also made efforts to identify the security officers on the video, analyzed their clothing, physique and caught footage of them lighting grenades in complete darkness and the light falling on their faces. A lot of time was spent on the analysis.

The cases against Patselyak and Lukash, which began in 2016, were eventually closed without verdicts due to the statute of limitations. Judges Anatoliy Yaselsky and Tetyana Shchasna did not have enough time for the trial to last eight years.

Judge Anatoliy Yaselsky.

Адвокатська дорадча група

Judge Tetyana Shchasna.

Адвокатська дорадча група

The greatest number of complaints from prosecutors and Maidan survivors were directed at Judge Yaselsky, who was then the head of the Svyatoshynskyi Court in Kyiv. In the case against Patselyak, witnesses and victims were heard, evidence was considered, and all that remained was to hold debates and the final word, i.e., there were several hearings before the verdict, but the presiding judge did not hold a single one for several months.

Prosecutors and Maidan activists complained about him to the Supreme Court of Justice, and he was suspended from work for two months with his salary, but without any bonuses. Yaselsky was also ordered to attend a judgesʼ school and the Higher Qualification Commission. The judge tried to appeal this decision in the Supreme Court, but lost.

The Maidan survivors believe that this happened only because they “a group of twenty people” came to consider the issue and “looked the judges in the eye”. The prosecutor calls this a “precedented case” — this has never happened to any judge.

The closed cases against Lukash and Patselyak were successfully appealed and returned for review. For Patselyak, the last three years of trials were the worst ever. For a year and a half, he was held in a pre-trial detention center on new charges. SBU found two Russian passports on him — an internal and a foreign one.

It was established that Patselyak studied at the Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Khabarovsk and worked in the Russian police. On the eve of the presidential elections in 2003, he came to Ukraine with his family, received a Ukrainian passport and went to work in the Ukrainian police. After the “Maidan victory” in 2014, he flew to Russia several times, although he denied this in court.

Patselyak has already been stripped of his Ukrainian passport, although he insists that he does not have Russian documents. The Maidan survivals recall that he “called himself stateless”.

“Do you know what Patselyak calls us?” Pazyniak asks, narrowing his eyes. “Maidan holdovers.”

He points at us and says that nobody is interested in Maidan affairs — “only these clowns”.

Vasyl Pazynyak holds his MPʼs ID card and remembers how he was beaten on February 18, 2014.

Dmytro Vaga / "Babel"

The Maidan survivors often meet in the center, near Maidan.

Dmytro Vaga / "Babel"

The lawyer for Patselyak and Lukash is Natalia Voznyuk. She and her clients refused to speak to Babel because they “have become disillusioned with the media” and believe that “nobody needs the truth”.

Her photo with her phone number — with the caption “Berkut lawyer”, and that she could be contacted — was hung for a long time in the Russian embassy in Kyiv. She also defended other clients who found themselves on the “pro-Russian side of the barricades”.

After the full-scale invasion, she helped an official with a Russian passport to return to the Ministry of Justice. And before that, she achieved the cancellation of the sentence of two men who broadcast the separatist channel of the so-called “DPR” “Novorossiya TV” in Ukraine.

Voznyuk has been working at the “Tatarov Farynnyk Holovko” law firm since 2012, which was renamed “Credence” in 2020. The name was changed because one of the firmʼs founders Oleh Tatarov went to work for the Office of President Zelensky.

Klymenko appears in court.

Олександр Тимошенко / Facebook

Pazyniak raises his hand so that the judge can give him the floor outside of the procedure.

Олександр Тимошенко / Facebook

Doves of Remembrance at the site of the executions of participants in the Revolution.

Олександр Тимошенко / Facebook

5

Currently, courts are considering 31 cases against 40 defendants regarding the events of February 18. Prosecutor Suprun says that an investigation is ongoing against 33 more suspects, and they are wanted.

The four Maidan friends are focusing on 12 trials where the defendants live in Ukraine. These include not only “Berkut” officers Lukash and Patselyak, but also former heads of the Kyiv police. The statute of limitations on these charges will expire only in 2029, so the Maidan survivors hope to hear the verdicts.

One of the defendants is the former deputy head of the public security department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Volodymyr Hryniak, who, according to the investigation, approved the transfer of weapons to security forces, coordinated their actions on February 18, and distributed money to the “Berkut” officers throughout the Revolution.

After the Maidan victory, Interior Minister Avakov promoted Hryniak from deputy to head of the Ministry of Internal Affairsʼ public security department. On the Flag Day in 2014, President Petro Poroshenko gave him the rank of major general of the police, and when he transferred to work in the National Guard, and the police rank was replaced with a military one.

The families of the deceased, the victims, and prosecutors tried to get Hryniak released and arrested through the courts, but they failed. Deputies from the “Popular Front” came to his defense in court. They said that Hryniak, on the contrary, did not attack, but warned about the actions of the security fighters.

His trial began in 2018. For the first two years, the judge read him the charges. Hryniak goes to all the hearings and records videos on Facebook afterward. He denies the charges and demands a full acquittal. He says that prosecutors falsified evidence, and that the Maidan activists are “lying” against him — “everyone will have to answer”. The statute of limitations against him has partially expired, but he could still be sentenced by 2029.

Yuriy Spasskykh returned to Ukraine in 2018. During the Maidan, he was the deputy head of the department for ensuring mass events of the public security department of the Kyiv police. Now he is a major and a serviceman of the National Guard. He was mobilized in 2023.

Valeriy shows bullet holes in the lamppost on Instytutska Street.

Dmytro Vaga / "Babel"

Klymenko keeps a notebook where he writes down the names of the judges, the schedule of the hearings, and what happened at them.

Dmytro Vaga / "Babel"

Spasskykh left Ukraine immediately after the protests, and in 2018 he was detained on the border with Belarus. Prosecutor Suprun says that a Moscow court verdict and materials from a Russian criminal case were found in his belongings.

The documents state that Spasskykh served three years in Russia for attempting to abduct the deputy head of the Presidential Administration of Yanukovych — Andriy Portnov. The abduction was allegedly ordered by the Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko. The reward was one million dollars.

"We canʼt verify this in Russia," says Suprun. He doesnʼt give Spasskykhʼs testimony, "although Iʼve asked him repeatedly over the years".

There are currently two ongoing trials against him. Spasskykh is accused of organizing a terrorist act, organizing premeditated murder and grievous bodily harm (the statute of limitations expire in 2029), as well as abuse of power and official authority, and illegally obstructing rallies (the statute of limitations expire in 2024).

Spasskykhʼs lawyer is asking the court for the second time to suspend the process, where the statute of limitations will expire in 2.5 years, [because] the person is at war. Prosecutor Suprun objects to this: Spasskykh participates in sessions where the statute of limitations has expired, and therefore can participate in this process as well.

In March 2023, there was a farewell to the soldier Dmytro Kotsiubaylo (“Da Vinci”) on Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The Maidan survivors Andriy Klymenko and scientist Oleksandr Luts could not believe their eyes — Spasskykh was standing among the people, "holding carnations". Not far from him was the Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko. The Maidan activists approached them.

"Are you Spasskykh?" Luts asked. He nodded: "Yes."

“And then I said to Klitschko: ʼYou owe him a million.’ Klitschko asked the Spasskys: ʼDo I?’ and everyone was embarrassed,” the physicist recalls.

Hryniak demands a full acquittal in court.

Олександр Тимошенко / Facebook

Spasskykh does not testify in court and skips hearings.

Олександр Тимошенко / Facebook

A victim Andriy Klymenko photographed Spasskykh at the farewell to Da Vinci. Next to Vitaliy Klitschko, Maidan Nezalezhnosti, March 2023.

Personal archives of heroes / «Бабель»

In 2024, Horbatyuk met Spasskykh in Klitschkoʼs entourage. They came to several units to donate drones, "but they deceived us, they called us, but they didnʼt give us the Mavics". When the commander first gave the former prosecutor Spasskykhʼs phone number and said that through him he could get drones from the Kyiv City State Administration, he thought it was a coincidence, because "such a thing cannot exist, and then [it was] shock".

At the same time, with his military service during the invasion, Spasskykh completed postgraduate studies at the Yaroslav the Wise National Law University and received a PhD. President Zelensky awarded him the Order of Danylo Halytsky, and Spasskykh became a full cavalier of the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky.

In August 2026, he received the "Hero of Ukraine", but two weeks later Zelensky canceled the decree. No one explained the reasons for the award or why the award was taken away.

The first of the Maidan protesters to see the presidential decree awarding Spasskykh the title of "Hero of Ukraine" was Prosecutor Suprun, who sent a message to the Maidan activists: "Congratulate the new hero." They were then sitting together at the table and celebrating something. A few days later, they went to SBU to complain.

6

In court after another disrupted session, Pazyniak invited everyone to go for coffee. Thatʼs how the sculptor, physicist, entrepreneur, and former deputy became friends. For one of the coffees, Pazyniak brought liquor from former patients from Odesa.

Others began bringing sandwiches, buns, and sweets. Their company of “February 18 victims” consists of 10-20 people, but Andriy, Vasyl, Valeriy, and Oleksandr are seen most often.

They created the public organization "Unconquered Maidan 18". Physicist Luts says that the name is a response to the "chaos in the courts". They keep notes of the sessions — what happened and when, or, conversely, what went wrong.

They calculated that they "served" a thousand sessions. They compile a list of judges who have considered their cases over the past ten years. Pazyniak says that there were already a hundred of them, but "only 3-5 of them turned out to be decent", others deliberately delay the processes and "trample on our dignity".

Summary of the court hearing.

Dmytro Vaga / "Babel"

Despite everything, the Maidan survivors believe that they will see sentences for their perpetrators.

Dmytro Vaga / "Babel"

The former MP is the loudest voice of the group of victims, although he does not consider himself to be so and says: “Everyone here is active and very cheerful.” Now 5-10 people go to the courts. But there were days when only Oleksandr Luts came to the hearings.

"I could have just not gone, but then we would have turned into those who knew everything and did nothing," says the physicist.

Luts says that before Maidan “I was a different person”. He cannot explain what does it mean. He says that during the protests he met two men from the Lviv region. They were shot on February 20. Thanks to them, he switched to Ukrainian and — whenever possible — goes to visit the parents of the deceased.

If you ask four friends what they are doing in court right now, they will sigh deeply. How many times have they had to retell how they were beaten? Most of the stories are pretty much the same, but there are unique cases.

The Maidan protester Mykola Pidpuzko recalled that when he gave evidence about the beatings at the Prosecutorʼs Office, the investigator replied: "[What about] you beat our people in the same way?"

Protester Anatoliy Fartushny was doused with liquid by security fighters in Kriposny Lane and shouted in Russian: "Set [him] fire! Set [him] fire!" and then hit on the head with a metal pipe with a "rose" on top.

"If you had been beaten like that, Ms. Judge, 6 of you would have died. But I survived and now I canʼt get justice," Fartushny said in court.

The judge was outraged, like, she was being threatened with murder.

The Maidan survivors have a “secret meeting place”. Itʼs a cafe near the “Khreschatyk” metro station. The prices are affordable, and the administration allows the tables to be moved [together] “out of respect for their revolutionary past”. There, they discuss plans for future meetings, celebrate birthdays, and commemorate those who did not live to see their sentences.

In August 2026, Vyacheslav Rymarenko, whose skull was crushed on February 18, passed away. The Maidan survivors accompanied his son to the war, and helped him speak Ukrainian. One day, Rymarenkoʼs son (who was already serving) called and asked him not to speak Russian to him.

Before his death, Rymarenko Sr. was in intensive care. Pazyniak came to him after the court hearing, which was once again canceled, and said about it, and [then] "Slava shed a tear, and he was gone during the night."

Kateryna Shapoval died before that. Her only son Serhiy was killed in Kriposny Lane. She went to the meeting for a long time, and then she “began to pine”. She refused help. She said that her husband and son were lying in the cemetery, and she wanted to go to them, but “there is [still] no justice here”.

“About twenty people have already died,” says Luts.

The Maidan survivors near the monument to Pylyp Orlyk — took a photo and went to the Supreme Court session.

Personal archives of heroes / «Бабель»

At the grave of Serhiy Shapoval, who was killed on February 18, and his mother Kateryna, who went to court and did not wait for the verdict.

Personal archives of heroes / «Бабель»

The Maidan protesters protest outside the Office of President Zelensky.

Адвокатська дорадча група

Sometimes the Maidan survivors are overcome with sadness, because journalists stopped going to court hearings “right after Poroshenko’s defeat in the elections”. The lawyers who agreed to defend them for free have also forgotten about them — “we don’t see them”. Society in general doesn’t care. The war has pushed their tragedy off the agenda.

Oksana Mykhalevych from the Lawyersʼ Advisory Group, which represents the interests of victims and families of the deceased in court, explains that they are physically not enough for all the trials, "there are only seven of us". There used to be more, but after the invasion, people mobilized.

Lawyers post dozens of announcements on Facebook with a schedule of hearings. They schedule 35-40 hearings a week in different parts of Kyiv. Every day is scheduled. Mykhalevych states that lawyersʼ announcements begin with the words "Attention Media" — "but journalists donʼt come to us", even though their attention "forces the courts to work".

She says that problems with Ukrainian courts have always existed, and the Maidan cases only "highlighted the catastrophe". Instead, judges quickly consider cases against their colleagues who condemned Maidan protesters during the protests. Decisions are made in favor of judges — "they have the time and inspiration for that".

According to Horbatyuk, in February 2014, Maidan won, but the law enforcement and judicial systems remained old. He decided long ago that the people who came to power thanks to Maidan were not eager to change anything radically. Having law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and judges who are ready to follow instructions turned out to be more profitable than the ideals of Maidan.

Horbatyuk was recently invited to school to talk about the Revolution of Dignity. The students asked who was in prison for the shootings, and he said that the trials were ongoing.

The place where Maidan protesters were shot on February 20.

maidanmuseum.org

In the summer of 2026, construction of a memorial began here.

Dmytro Vaga / "Babel"

The Maidan survivors come here every year on February 18 and 20.

Dmytro Vaga / "Babel"

7

In a “secret place” at the table are scientist Luts and his brother Volodymyr, sculptor Dumansky, while Klymenko “is late as always”. Former MP Pazyniak takes a small bottle of liquor out of the package and adds a sip to each of their coffee — “so as not to get sick”.

He admits (with a sigh) that he was recently attacked with a knife, but fortunately, everything went well. He attributes this to the courts and worries that it will "scare away the people who continue to go there".

Another cup [of coffee] is raised for the Babel journalist: "Bottoms up! Bottoms up!" They say that the attention of journalists is returning to them, and itʼs inspiring. Grown men believe in miracles, although they donʼt encounter them.

They say that the main thing is that they donʼt regret anything theyʼve done.