Russia's FSB Agency Helped Plan Maidan Sniper Killings: Ukrainian Investigation

Thirty members of Russia's FSB security service, the successor to the KGB, helped Ukrainian authorities plan a police assault on mass protests in Kyiv that left 76 dead and hundreds injured Feb. 18-20, Ukrainian security officials said Thursday announcing preliminary results of their investigation into the killings.

Ukrainian authorities also announced the arrest of 12 former riot police officers identified as government snipers who shot protesters in February.

They said dozens of other police and security personnel involved in the killings have fled to Russian-occupied Crimea.

The FSB and Russia's defence ministry also shipped five tonnes of grenades and other explosives to Ukrainian security forces, which used them against protesters, officials said.

Officials said hired civilian goons were also involved in killings of protesters and a journalist.

Russia denied being involved in the shootings, but later acknowledged that an FSB officer, Sergei Beseda, was in Kyiv Feb. 20-21 to check security at the Russian embassy.

UPDATE: Ukrainian military analyst Dmitry Tymchuk said today on his Facebook page (translated here) that Beseda is a colonel-general who commands FSB intelligence operations against ex-Soviet republics. His role doesn't involve embassy security.

Tymchuk said sources informed him Beseda arrived in Kyiv Feb. 20 with a delegation of seven FSB officers.

In addition, Tymchuk names 20 other members of the FSB and other Russian intelligence agencies, half of them ranked lieutenant-colonel or above, who he says were already present in Kyiv at the time.

New Footage of Bloodbath

This Daily Beast story on the shootings includes previously unreported details and new images of security personnel apparently readying to attack protesters and, afterwards, packing up vans as they fled. 

BBC also has this new footage of the carnage.

Footage Best Documenting Shootings

But the footage I think best documents the bloodbath remains this pair of videos showing heavily armed police with sniper rifles going into action -- as well as a 41-minute protesters' POV showing numerous unarmed protesters and medics getting shot, some while withdrawing.

The shootings were reportedly part of a failed larger plan involving over 20,000 police to crush the mass protests against Ukraine's pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych before he fled power Feb. 22, Toronto's Globe and Mail reported in February.

The story cited these documents from Hennadiy Moskal, a Ukrainian parliament member and former deputy chair of Ukraine's SBU security service.

Ukraine Crisis: Images Contradict Putin's Claims That Soldiers in Crimea Not Russian

Heavily armed men stand guard outside government
Ukrainian building in Simferopol, Crimea, Monday.
Russian president Vladimir Putin claims they're
not Russian troops, but rather Crimean "self-
defense" forces who may have gotten their uniforms
in a store.

Russian president Vladimir Putin denied Russian soldiers have invaded Ukraine when he gave reporters his first interview Tuesday about the Crimean military stand-off.

Instead, he claimed that the thousands of heavily armed, Russian-speaking soldiers who have taken over Ukrainian government buildings and surround Ukrainian military installations, threatening to attack if troops inside don't surrender, are local "self-defense" forces.

Putin was asked directly if the soldiers are from the Russian military.

"Why don't you take a look at the post-Soviet states. There are many uniforms that are similar. You can go to a store and buy any kind of uniform," he said.

A reporter asked: "But were they Russian soldiers or not?"

Putin: "Those were local self-defense units."

Russia Claims no Control Over "Self-Defense" Forces

Crimean "self-defense" members guard a military airfield
near Sevastopol in this photo from the Kyiv Post
published March 4. The men don't appear to be armed
or dressed in the same uniforms as the thousands
of well-equipped soldiers who have suddenly appeared
in Crimea. A truck that the Kyiv Post describes as a
"Russian military vehicle" is visible in the background.

Complicating matters, the thousands of Russian-speaking soldiers aren't wearing insignia, often wear face coverings and generally refuse to speak with reporters.

Some have, however, confirmed to reporters and locals that they are Russian soldiers, NPR reported yesterday.

The troops have occasionally been seen to collaborate with ragtag groups of pro-Russian activists who appear more clearly to be civilians (shown in this YouTube video attempting to confront Ukrainian marines in Crimea) -- although it's not clear how many of the latter are Crimean residents as opposed to arrivals from Russia.

(Ukrainian authorities say pro-Moscow provocateurs have been arriving by the busload from Russia, and these stories in Toronto's Globe and Mail and Kyiv Post suggest the claim isn't without merit.)

In contrast, the soldiers themselves appear professionally trained and are equipped with military-grade hardware -- bazookas, armoured personnel carriers, military trucks and assault rifles -- difficult or impossible to find in a store.

Yet, Russian officials insist they have no operational control over the Crimean "self-defense" forces and can't order them back to their bases. "They take no orders from us," Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters Wednesday.

Images Emerge of Russian Hardware in Crimea

Nonetheless, photos and video are emerging that provide more evidence the troops are Russian.

This story on the site StopFake.org, created by Ukrainian journalist students to counter Russian government propaganda about the crisis, includes a video showing soldiers breaking into a Ukrainian government building in Crimea.

The soldiers have no insignia, but one has a tag on his back with the name "A.M. Dosanov." StopFake says it has identified him as a Russian special forces soldier from a unit based in Russia's Saratov region.

The tag also says "рядовой," which means "private" in Russian.

Below are images of Russian hardware and military trucks with Russian plates in Crimea taken in recent days.

Russian tanks -- not likely obtained in a store -- blockading
a Ukrainian military base in Crimea. Source: CNN, March 2, 2014

Russian armoured personnel carriers on the road to
Simferopol, Crimea. Source: The Guardian, Feb. 28.

This image from a CNN report March 4 shows Russian self-
propelled guns.

UPDATE: Many other photographs demonstrating the Russian military presence in Crimea, including special forces, are included in this post on the EuroMaidan PR blog. 

Accompanying the photos is interesting explanatory text by French firearms expert Edmond Huet.

Ukraine Crisis: Video From Maidan Sniper Killings in Kyiv

Here are two contrasting POV videos that give a glimpse into what really happened in the last hours of the mass protests in Ukraine that forced president Viktor Yanukovych out of power on Feb. 21.

First is a 13-minute video of heavily armed police and government snipers moving into attack positions on Feb. 20 or 21.

Second is a 41-minute video from the protesters' side, showing how police and government snipers shot numerous unarmed demonstrators -- in some cases as they withdrew -- and medics trying to help those stricken.

The bloodbath was apparently part of a larger plan to encircle and open fire on thousands of protesters camped out in downtown Kyiv, involving 22,000 police and hundreds of special forces troops, according to Ukrainian legislator Hennadi Moskal, a former deputy interior minister.

Tracksuit-Wearing Government Thugs

Yanukovych was also accused of hiring thousands of tracksuit-wearing thugs -- known as "titushki," after Vadim Titushko, a 20-year-old martial arts enthusiast who beat up two journalists at a pro-government demonstration last year.

Titushki attacked and in some cases reportedly tortured and killed anti-government protesters and at least one journalist, while badly beating a second journalist, Tetyana Chornovol, after a dramatic car chase caught on her dashboard camera. Chornovol had been active in the Kyiv protest camp and had been investigating Yanukovych's corruption.

Vadim Titushko himself later switched sides and announced he supported the mass protests against Yanukovych, acknowledging he had made a mistake.

Since Yanukovych fled Ukraine, titushki have still been reported in eastern Ukrainian cities and Crimea. In this video, titushki in Crimea, calling themselves "self-defense" members, attempt to confront Ukrainian marines at a base blockaded by Russian armoured personnel carriers.

Surveillance Notes Hint at Attack

UPDATE: Journalists working on the YanukovychLeaks website, who are sifting through thousands of documents left behind by the deposed president at his lavish estate, report that Yanukovych's head bodyguard, Konstyantyn Kobzar, made what appear to be surveillance notes about Chornovol's movements around the time of the attack.

The notes say: "Chornovol went to Maidan," followed by "23:10 turned off her phone. 23:50 turned it on at Khreshchatyk str." The notes go on to say "23:50 cleanup operation started" and "01:00 done (clean)."