12 police officers are arrested in Ukraine as Russia claims 25 Ukrainians have been detained for planning terror attacks

Referring to claims about the Berkut being responsible for the Feb 20 sniper attack: 

In this Orwellian world of info wars it is enough to make an assertion it is enough to make an assertion no matter how preposterous or removed from the truth.

It is harder to deny the lies.

FSB detains 25 Ukrainian citizens suspected of 'masterminding attacks' in Russia

Russia’s Federal Security Service has reported the detention of 25 Ukrainian citizens suspected of masterminding attacks on the territory of Russia, according to RIA Novosti news agency.

RT,

3 April, 2014

“Twenty-five people have been identified and detained as a result of measures performed in connection with the obtained information about the intentions of members of the so-called Maidan's Right Sector to carry out sabotaging and terrorist acts on the Russian territory between March 14-16, 2014 in seven Russian regions (Rostov, Volgograd, Tver, Orel, and Belgorod regions, as well as the Republics of Kalmykiya and Tatarstan),” a statement from the Federal Security Service said, as quoted by RIA Novosti.

RT’s source in the security forces said that at least three of those detained were given orders by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) before being sent to Russia.

Among those who gave them instructions was head of Right Sector’s personal security, S. Sereda, who received a high rank in the SBU following the coup in February, the detained parties reportedly said during the interrogation.

According to the source, their mission was to photograph the deployment sights and movements of the Russian military in the regions bordering Ukraine.

They were also tasked with studying the politico-social situation and arranging contacts with representatives of Russian radical organizations.

Those detained worked in Russia undercover as employees of a Ukrainian firm which specializes in children’s photography. They were to pass the gathered data via internet and text messages, the source said.

The SBU has denounced the claims that Ukrainians were planning terrorist attacks in Russia, calling them “nonsense,” Reuters reports.

The Right Sector labeled the news “propaganda,” with radical organizations spokesman, Artem Skoropadsky, telling Interfax-Ukraine that if there are any Right Sector members in Russia they aren’t plotting attacks.

No Berkut troops among ‘Maidan snipers’ – Ukrainian special forces veteran

RT,

3 April, 2014

Berkut riot police weren’t involved in mass killings by unidentified snipers in Kiev on February 20. The detention of its officers is an attempt to tarnish Ukrainian law enforcement, Berkut veteran organization head, Vladimir Krashevsky, told RT.

12 Berkut officers were detained for being part of the so-called ‘black company,’ which were given sniper rifles to provide cover for their retreating comrades, Oleg Makhnitsky, Ukraine’s acting Prosecutor General said on Thursday.

Krashevsky has refuted claims that Berkut used fire arms against the demonstrators on the bloodiest day of the Ukrainian coup, which saw President Viktor Yanukovich ousted and 42 people dead.

“At around 8:00 AM local time [on February 20], the withdrawal of the interior troops and Berkut forces began in several directions. At that moment the troops – who were unarmed – came under sniper fire from several buildings,” Krashevsky told RT.

According to the veteran, Berkut’s covering troops had to perform the risky operation of evacuating 300 interior ministry servicemen from Kiev’s Oktyabrsky palace.

“250 people were evacuated thanks to cover from the guys in black uniforms with yellow armbands (Berkut),” he said. “50 people, unfortunately, were captured by the demonstrators and taken to Maidan.”

“During the cover operation one of the Berkut troops, Nikolay Semchuk, was killed by two snipers. Snipers call this a ‘double shooting’, when two shots are fired at the same. One shot landed in the leg and the other – in the head,” Krashevsky added.

He also corrected the acting Prosecutor General, saying that the official name of the unit isn’t “Berkut black company” but “Special Company of the Special Police Regiment Berkut in the City of Kiev.”

 AFP Photo / Sergei Supinsky

“Its staff include 90 people, with 23 of them being present in the area where gunfire came,” he said.

The Berkut veteran has confirmed that “12 people were detained yesterday [April 2]” and “three of them currently remain in custody.”

“They are officers – the commander of the company and two others. As yet, I’m unaware of the charges laid against them. But so far I’ve learned that they’ll have to take a polygraph lie detector test,” he said.

Krashevsky believes that the politically-loaded investigation on the Kiev snipers, and the arrest of the Berkut officers are part of a campaign “to turn them and the rest of the law enforcement agencies into the enemy."

"There was an info war, a massive one, from the Western and Ukrainian media,” he stressed.

According to the veteran, the Ukrainians were only shown images where “weaponless people were falling down after being shot at – allegedly by the interior ministry servicemen. But it was just a montage, which was put together and accompanied by a relevant commentary. It was nothing more. But that was enough for our people.”

The identity of the ‘Maidan snipers’ is a hot political topic in Ukraine and abroad, with both protesters and police among those killed by sniper fire in the center of the Ukrainian capital.

The prime minister in the Ukrainian coup-imposed government, Arseny Yatsenyuk, says that ousted president Yanukovich should answer for the killing of the Maidan protesters.

He told the BBC that a criminal investigation had been launched against Yanukovich, accusing him of mass murder.

The Ukrainian president, who fled to Russia following the February-20 events, has said many times that he did not order the police to shoot at the demonstrators.

Yatsenyuk now wants him to defend himself in a Ukrainian court, adding that there’s compelling evidence that “senior Ukrainian officials were responsible for the massacre of people” in Kiev.

A leaked phone call between EU foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet talked about the strong suspicion that people among Ukraine’s new leadership were behind the snipers.

Earlier, Aleksandr Yakimenko, who headed the Ukrainian Security Service during the Kiev standoff, said the so-called Maidan Self-Defense Force controlled the building from which the snipers were shooting.

Ukrainian officials hint at Russian involvement in deaths of protesters

12 police officers are arrested in Ukraine as Russia claims 25 Ukrainians have been detained for planning terror attacks

The Guardian,

3 April, 2014

Top Ukrainian officials have insinuated that Russian security services had a hand in the violence that led to more than 100 deaths in Kiev last month, as Moscow claimed 25 Ukrainians had planned terror attacks in Russia last month and had been detained.

At a press conference in Kiev, Arsen Avakov, Ukraine's interim interior minister, claimed his predecessor Vitali Zakharchenko, who is currently on the run, was directly involved in giving orders to shoot at protesters, along with the SBU security services. He said a dozen Ukrainian police officers had been detained on suspicion of carrying out the shooting.

Valentyn Nalivaichenko, the new head of the SBU, added that a number of officers from Russia's FSB had been consulting with the SBU in Kiev in December and January, and that Russian citizens were present at SBU headquarters.

He also claimed that explosives and weapons were delivered to Ukraine from Russia during the protest period, including on the day of the bloodiest violence, 20 February. There was no information given about the sources for the information, nor any evidence provided to the public to back up the allegations. The FSB's press service said: "Let these statements remain on the conscience of the SBU."

The ousted Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, denied any involvement in ordering the sniper attacks. Yanukovych fled Kiev shortly after the shootings and eventually left Ukraine for Russia, where he now lives.

He still claims to be the legitimate president of Ukraine, although even his own party has disowned him. He confirmed that he had asked Russia to send troops to Crimea, a decision he now says was a mistake, after Moscow moved to annex the territory last month.

The Kremlin has put forward a different version of events, alleging the violence that spurred Yanukovych's downfall was organised by far-right radical protest groups keen to radicalise the situation. On Sunday, Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow had evidence that Ukrainian nationalist groups were behind the sniper attacks.

In an interview with the Russian media, he said that while he could not be 100% certain, "many factors point to this". Lavrov said he had repeatedly raised the allegations with western partners and hoped they would not be swept under the carpet. There is also footage that purportedly shows snipers shooting at protesters and riot police, which Russia says is evidence that the violence was carried out by "provocateurs".

A recording of a phone call between the EU foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, and Estonia's foreign minister, Urmas Paet, was leaked last month – with suspicions falling on Russian intelligence or organisations close to it – in which the pair discussed the theory that the opposition itself was responsible for the snipers.

Paet tells Ashton he has heard discussions in Kiev in which people claim possible involvement, to which she responds with surprise. Russian media have seized on the call as evidence that there has been a western cover-up about supposed involvement.

On Thursday, Ukrainian officials said their investigation had determined some, but not all, of the sniper locations, and that 12 people had been arrested after thousands of riot police were questioned. Officials said some of the Berkut (special police) officers whom Kiev wants to arrest were in Crimea. Hundreds of Berkut returned to the peninsula after the violence in Kiev and were treated as heroes.

After the new government disbanded the regiment, Russia said it would give Berkut officers passports and integrate them into Russian security services, while former Berkut officers played a part in the Crimean "self-defence" forces that sprang up before the Russian moves to annex the territory.

On Thursday evening, a Russian television channel showed footage of what it said were Ukrainian radicals captured last month, who it said had planned to carry out terrorist acts in various regions of Russia around 16 March, the day of Crimea's referendum. The channel said three of the men were members of Right Sector, the nationalist group Lavrov announced was behind the sniper attacks.

Also on Thursday, the head of Russia's gas behemoth Gazprom said Ukraine would now have to pay $485 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas because of a new export duty. The increase came just two days after Gazprom announced a 44% rise in the price to $385.50 and will increase financial pressure on Ukraine's troubled economy. Analysts say Ukraine will struggle to pay the new price.