Russian Lawmaker Demands Probe Into 2014 Murders Of Crimean Security Forces In Kiev

Russian Lawmaker Demands Probe Into 2014 Murders of Crimean Security Forces in Kiev

Natalia Poklonskaya, a Russian lawmaker representing Crimea, said on Wednesday that she demands that Ukraine investigate crimes committed during the 2014 events in Kiev's central Maidan square, including the killings of three Crimean special police officers and the severe injuries made to hundreds of others

SIMFEROPOL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th May, 2020) Natalia Poklonskaya, a Russian lawmaker representing Crimea, said on Wednesday that she demands that Ukraine investigate crimes committed during the 2014 events in Kiev's central Maidan square, including the killings of three Crimean special police officers and the severe injuries made to hundreds of others.

On Tuesday, Poklonskaya, who served as Crimea's prosecutor during the 2014 events, gave an online interview to Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon. Later, she said that the Ukrainian authorities created hype in the media around the interview instead of launching an investigation based on the facts she had voiced about the 2013-2014 events in Ukraine and Crimea.

"I ask you to pay attention ... to the facts of crimes voiced by me, I demand that procedural decisions are taken under the principle of the inevitability of punishment. I repeat, I spoke about a coup and armed seizure of power in Ukraine in 2014, about the killings of law enforcement officers..., and about causing serious bodily harm to 150 employees of the Crimean 'Berkut' [special police force]," Poklonskaya wrote on her Telegram channel.

Gordon wrote on his website earlier in the day that Ukraine could use Poklonskaya's statements in a lawsuit against Russia, which Kiev sees as an aggressor. Meanwhile, Ukraine's permanent representative to Crimea, Anton Korynevych, said, as cited by various media reports, that in due time, his country's law enforcement agencies would provide a proper assessment of Poklonskaya's actions in Crimea.

The Crimean peninsula rejoined Russia after nearly 97 percent of voters supported the move in a 2014 referendum.

Between November 21, 2013, and February 22, 2014, over 100 people died in clashes on Kiev's central Maidan Nezalezhnosti square, according to the Ukrainian Health Ministry. The protests led to a change of government, forcing then-president Viktor Yanukovych to flee the country to Russia. The Ukrainian authorities have been claiming that the former president is responsible for the killings during the Euromaidan protests, while Yanukovych denies his guilt, qualifying the case as politically motivated.