Ukraine: The hidden truth
20-minute television documentary broadcast on the Matrix television network in Italy on Nov 15, 2017
The documentary film on Italy’s Matrix channel reviews the events in Ukraine in late 2013/early 2014 leading to the violent overthrow of Ukraine’s elected president on February 21, 2014. The documentary contains explosive new evidence and testimony concerning the sniper killings of dozens of protesters and police on Maidan Square on Feb 20, 2014 by right-wing extremists.
The documentary confirms what has long been reported by researchers and eyewitnesses but covered up by Western media, namely, the sniper massacres were a provocation conducted by the extreme-right in Ukraine in order to spark a coup d’etat and gain the support of Western governments. The staging worked on all fronts, including winning the complicity of Western media.
Further below is extensive background material published earlier in Canada and investigative news reports based on the Matrix documentary and published in Italy on Nov 15, 2017 and Germany on Nov 19, 2017.
The 2014 sniper massacre in Kiev: ‘Orders from the opposition’
Gian Micalessin, Il Giornale, Nov 15, 2017 (translated by New Cold War.org from the Italian original, using Google Translate)
In 2014, 80 people died in Ukraine. It was Yanukovych who was blamed.
I was totally outraged.” So says Georgian Alexander Revazishvilli, remembering the tragic shootout of 20 February 2014 in Kiev when a group of mysterious snipers opened fire on crowds and cops massacring over 80 people. That massacre has horrified the world and changed the destiny of Ukraine by forcing President Viktor Yanukovich out of office, accused of organizing the shootout. But the massacre also changed the fate of Europe and our country, triggering the crisis that will lead to sanctions against Putin’s Russia. (Video: Sanctions create a boomerang for the Italian economy)
Revazishvilli’s confessions and those of two other Georgians – gathered by writers in the documentary ‘Ukraine, the hidden truths’, airing tonight at 23.30 on Matrix, Channel 5 – reveal a different and disconcerting truth. The truth of a massacre carried out by the same opposition that accused Yanukovych and his Russian allies.
Revazishvilli and his two companions – met and interviewed in the documentary – are a former member of the security services of former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and two former militants of his own party. Hired in Tbilisi by Mamuka Mamulashvili, Saakashvili’s military advisor, are tasked with supporting – along with other Georgian and Lithuanian volunteers – ongoing demonstrations in Kiev in return for a $ 5,000 final fee.
With fake passports, they arrive in Ukraine to coordinate demonstrations and lead the Ukrainian police, initially without using weapons. The weapons come on stage on February 18 and are distributed to the various Georgian and Lithuanian groups by Mamulashvili and other leaders of the Ukrainian opposition. “There were three or four weapons in each bag, there were Makarov guns, Akm guns, rifles, and then cartridges.”
The following day, Mamulashvili and the leaders of the protest explain to volunteers who will face a police assault at the Conservatory building and at the Ukrainian hotel. In that case – he says – we must shoot at the square and sow chaos. But one of the protagonists confesses to having received another explanation, much more comprehensive. “When Mamulashvili arrived, I also asked him. Things are getting complicated, we have to start shooting – he replied that we cannot go to presidential elections. “But who to shoot?, I asked. He replied that who and where it did not matter, you had to shoot somewhere so much to sow chaos. ”
“It did not matter if we fired at a tree, a barricade, or tossed a Molotov,” confirms another volunteer, “what counted was sowing confusion.
“I listened to the screams,” admits Alexander. “There were dead and injured. My first and only thought was to leave in a hurry before they caught up with me. Otherwise, they would break me. Someone was already shouting that there were snipers.”
Four years later, Alexander and his two companions report they have not yet received the slightest payment and have decided to tell the truth about those who used and abandoned them. “At the time I did not realize, I was not ready. Then I understood. We’ve been used. Used and abandoned.”
Ukraine, hidden truths: Maidan snipers talk
By Gian Micalessin, published on Occhi Della Guerra [Eyes On War], Nov 16, 2017 (translated by New Cold War.org from the Italian original, using Google Translate)
Who massacred over 80 demonstrators and policemen gathered at Maidan Square–Independence Square in Kyiv—on that fateful day of February 20, 2014 where mass protest was taking place in favor of an association agreement with the European Union? The anti-Russian opposition which assumed government after the departure of President Viktor Yanukovych has always pointed the finger at the special forces of the deposed president, accusing them of sending a team of snipers to shoot the demonstrators to drown the protest in a bloodbath. But even back then, many people raised doubts and questions.
The first to contest the accepted version was Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Paet [2005-2014]. Returning from a trip to Kiev only 5 days after the massacre, he reported in a phone call to EU Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton revelations from a Ukrainian doctor who had examined the cadavers of those killed on Maidan Square. The intercepted phone call made known by Russian media is disconcerting.
“The most disturbing thing,” Paet explains, “is that all the evidence shows that people killed by snipers – both the cops and people in the street – were killed by the same snipers …”
Faced with the perplexity of a visibly embarrassed Ashton, the Estonian minister cites the testimony of the Ukrainian doctor. “She speaks as a doctor, says it is the same bullet signatures from the same kind of bullets. It is really disturbing that the new coalition,” Paet reaffirms, “refuses to investigate what is really going on. There is a very strong conviction that behind the snipers… is not Yanukovych, but some of the new coalition … ”
Four years from the beginning in November 2013 of Maidan’s demonstrations, we are able to describe another truth, completely different from the official one. Our story begins towards the end of summer 2017 in Skopye, the capital of Macedonia. There, after long and complex preliminaries, we meet Koba Nergadze and Kvarateskelia Zalogy two Georgian protagonists and witnesses of that tragic shootout and subsequent massacre.
Both Nergadze and Zalogy are linked to former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who started a short but bloody war with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in August 2008. Nergadze, as evidenced by an identification card he holds, was a member of a security service at the president’s orders. Zalogy is a former Saakashvili party activist. “I decided to come to Skopije to tell you all that we know about what happened … and I and my friend decided together, we need to shed some light on those facts,” Nergadze says.
The same is said a few months later by Alexander Revazishvilli, a former sniper of the defeated Georgian army and star of the Maidan shootout. We met in another Eastern European country. All three of our protagonists say that they were recruited at the end of 2013 by Mamuka Mamulashvili, a Saakashvili military advisor who, after the Maidan events, will move to the Donbass [region in eastern Ukraine] to lead the so-called Georgian Legion in clashes with pro-Russian insurgents.
“The first meeting was with Mamulashvili at the office of the National Movement,” Zalogy said. “The Ukrainian uprising in 2013 was similar to the ‘Pink Revolution’ that took place in Georgia years before. We had to direct and guide it using the same pattern used for the Pink Revolution.
Alexander’s version is no different. “Mamuka first asked me if I was really a chosen shooter – Alexander remembers – he immediately told me he needed me in Kiev to pick some places.”
Our protagonists, aggregated to various groups of volunteers [sic] between November 2013 and January 2014, receive passports with false names and money advances. “We left on January 15 and on the plane,” Zalogy remembers, “I received my passport and another with my photo but with different names and surnames. Then they gave us a thousand dollars to the head promising to give it another five thousand more there.”
Once in Kiev, our three protagonists begin to understand better why they were recruited. “Our task,” Alexandere explains, “was to arrange provocations to push the police to charge the crowd. Until the middle of February, however, there were not many weapons around. The molotovs, the shields and the sticks were used to the maximum.”
But in mid-February, clashes around Maidan began to get worse. “Around February 15 and 16,” Nergadze remembers, “the situation has begun to become more serious every day. He was out of control now. And in the meantime, they felt the first spar
“One day around February 15,” remembers Alexander, “Mamualashvili personally visited our tent. There was another guy in his uniform with him. He introduced him and told us he was an instructor, an American soldier.” The U.S. soldier is named Brian Christopher Boyenger and is a former officer and sniper in the 101st Airborne Division. After Maidan, he moves on to the Donbass front where he will fight in the ranks of the Georgian Legion alongside Mamulashvili.
“We were always in touch with this Bryan,” Nergadze explains. “He was a Mamulashvili man. It was he who gave us the orders. I had to follow all his instructions.”
Among the first suspects on the presence of firearms among the ranks of demonstrators is Serghey Pashinsky, a leader of Maidan Square, who became, after the fall of Yanukovych, chairman of the Kiev parliament. On February 18, as film footage shot that day shows, a car rifle locked by a car shot by a demonstrator shows a machine gun. A few seconds later, Pashinsky approaches and orders to let her go. The next day a handful of weapons were distributed to groups of Georgian and Lithuanian militants residing in Hotel Ukraina, the hotel overlooking the square used as a headquarters by opposition
“In those days, Pashinsky and three other people – including Parasyuk – have taken the weapons handbags to the hotel. They were going to get them into my room,” Nergadze says. Volodymyr Parasyuk is one of the leaders of the Maidan Square protest. After the massacre of demonstrators, he will become famous for an ultimatum in which he will threaten to use weapons to chase President Viktor Yanukovych.
“On February 18 – remembers Zalogy – someone took some weapons in my room. In the room with me there were two Lithuanians, the weapons were taken by them. ” “In each bag – remembers Nergadze – there were Makarov’s pistols, Akm carburetors, carbines. And then there were packets of cartridges. When I first saw them I did not understand …. When Mamulashvili arrived, I also asked him. “What’s going on,” I told him, “what are these weapons? Is everything all right? “Koba things are getting complicated, we have to start shooting,” he replied, “we can not go to the pre-election presidential elections …” “But to whom should we shoot? And where? “I asked him.” He replied that where he did not care, he had to shoot somewhere … so much to sow some chaos. ”
While Nergadze and Zalogy assist in arms distribution at the hotel, Alexander Revazishvilli and other volunteers reach the Conservatory, another building overlooking the square. “It will be February 16th … Pashinsky ordered us to collect our belongings and bring us in … .There came other people, they were almost all masked. From the purses I understood … they carried weapons …. They pulled them out and handed them over to the various groups. Only Pashinsky was talking …
“He was giving orders. He asked me where we were supposed to shoot. ”
“In the meantime – explains Nergadze – even at the Ukraine hotel, the leaders of the revolt underline the hypothesis of using the weapons. “They explained to us to shoot to create chaos and confusion. We did not have to stop. It did not matter if we fired at a tree, a barricade, or the molotov. The important thing was to sow the chaos. ”
On the morning of February 20, the weapons come into action. “It was supposed to be dawn,” Zalogy remembers, “when I heard the sound of the shootings … they were not bursts, they were single strokes … came from the next room. At that same time, the Lithuanians opened the window. One of them fired one shot while the other closed the window. They have fired three or four times everywhere. ”
Alexander, admitting he was involved in the shootout from the Conservatory building, claims to have understood very little. “Everyone started shooting two or three shots at a time. We did not have much choice. We were ordered to shoot both the Berkut, the police, and the demonstrators, no matter what. I was totally outraged. It went on for fifteen minutes … maybe twenty. I was out of my mind, agitated, under stress, I did not understand anything. Then suddenly after 15, 20 minutes the shootings have ceased and everyone has put down the weapons. ”
As the wounded and dead arrive in the Ukraina Hotel Salon, the snipers flee from the rooms. And so the victims find themselves next to their assassins. “Inside,” remembers Nergadze, “there was chaos, you did not understand who they were and the others. People ran back and forth. Someone was hurt … someone was armed. Outside was even worse. There were so many injured in the streets. And they’re all dead. ”
Alexander says he left in a hurry. “Someone was shouting that there were snipers, I knew what they were talking about,” he said, “my only thought was to disappear before they knew about me. Otherwise, they cracked me. At that time, however, I did not realize – I understand – I understand. We’ve been used. Used and now we’re stuck.”
Related analysis:
The Maidan sniper murders: Three parties confess, by Stefan Corinth, Telepolis (Germany), Nov 19, 2017 (German original)
The flawed Maidan Massacre investigation by Ukraine: Interview with Ivan Katchanovski, Feb 20, 2017, interview text published by Ivan Katchanovski on Academia.edu, from the original interview published in German in Telepolis, Feb 20, 2017
The Snipers’ Massacre on Maidan Square in Ukraine (updated Sept. 2015), 79-page academic paper by Ivan Katchanovski, University of Ottawa, September 2015
The Snipers’ Massacre on the Maidan in Ukraine is a 79-page paper by Ivan Katchanovski that was first presented on October 1, 2014 at the Chair of Ukrainian Studies Seminar at the University of Ottawa. It has been revised and updated twice, first in February 2015 and now in September 2015. This latest update was prepared for a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, Sept 3-6, 2015.
Ivan Katchanovski researches and teaches at the School of Political Studies and the Department of Communication at the University of Ottawa.
Author page of Ivan Katchanovski on New Cold War.org, here.
Facebook page of University of Ottawa researcher Ivan Katchanovski, here.
Posting to Ivan Katchanovski’s Facebook page on Nov 21, 2017:
The same two Georgians who said in the Italian documentary that they received orders and weapons to massacre both police and Maidan protesters have given long live interviews to one of the most popular Macedonian TV channels. They provided many more details about their background, their arrival and departure from Ukraine, and the Maidan massacre as a false flag operation. In particular, they said that they saw many top Maidan leaders and Saakashvili in the Hotel Ukraina before February 18 and that they were taken by Parubiy, the current head of the Ukrainian parliament, from the Boryspil airport to an Ushynsnsky Street apartment in Kyiv bypassing the border control.
One of them said that he and other members of his group refused an order to shoot but that he witnessed shooting from the Music Conservatory and then the Hotel Ukraina on February 20. Another Georgian said that there was shooting from the conservatory and his Hotel Ukraina room and that he saw Lithuanians shooting from a Hotel Ukraina window. They said that they and some other Georgians from one group left the hotel because it was dangerous to remain there and went to the Boryspil airport and flew to Tbilisi right after the massacre was over.
This and other specific information that they stated in both the Italian and Macedonia TV interview can be investigated and easily verified or shown to be false by the official investigation, government officials, and journalists in Ukraine. The fact that this is not done is another dog that did not bark. This indirectly corroborates their statements which directly corroborate my Maidan massacre study findings.
