PM: Interior Ministry and PGO expected to provide information on crimes against participants of Maidan till the end of the week

The Government of Ukraine anticipates the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine along with the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine will provide information on all proceedings for the investigation of crimes committed against participants of the Maidan later this week. Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk stated this at a meeting of the Government on Wednesday, 18 February.

The Cabinet meeting began with a minute of silence for the victims killed during the dramatic events in the Maidan, on 18-21 February 2014.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk remembered how on this day one year on, he and his colleagues and thousands of Maidan participants had moved peacefully from the Maidan to the Parliament demanding "legal vote on the return to the 2004 Constitution". This, according to Arseniy Yatseniuk, could have allowed "to take from Yanukovych and his gang those powers that they had stolen through the Constitutional Court."

"Yanukovych along with his regime and titushky retaliated by the massacre, shooting, slaughter and murders. Murders of people who came to fight for their country, for their future and their families," he underlined.

"We did not quite realize then that we were not fighting with Yanukovych. Yanukovych was just a pawn in the war waged by Vladimir Putin, the war against Ukraine and Ukrainians. And all the year, we all have been fighting for our country, fighting for our freedom and our independence. And the enemy - it is an authoritarian regime, led by Russia against Ukraine," Arseniy Yatsenyuk said.

The Prime Minister has emphasized that the Government of Ukraine expects the Interior Ministry with the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine will give comprehensive information on all proceedings to investigate crimes committed against the participants of the Maidan till the end of this week. "I know that there is a corresponding progress in these issues," he added.

"The criminals must be held accountable. The whole state machine, including the courts, must obey the law. Judicial reform, adopted by the Parliament, should help the courts to adjudicate on behalf of Ukraine, not on behalf of a bribe, to which they used over the last twenty years," Arseniy Yatsenyuk highlighted.