"In Kiev, we fought with werewolves." "Golden eagle" told about secrets of the Maidan: snipers, capture of a mortuary, underground smithy
The direction in which the investigation can be conducted under the direction and control of people directly involved in the coup d'état in Ukraine can be judged by the “sensation” that the American publication The Daily Beast made the day before. It has published photos of the fighters of the Alpha group, which 20 February in the yard of the building of the Security Service of Ukraine are armed with sniper rifles.
Journalists believe that these photos prove the guilt of the Yanukovych regime in the deaths of people. What do these photos really prove? And absolutely nothing. They could be a revelation only for those who are completely "not in the subject." The fact that some special forces 20 fighters of February received combat weaponIt has long been known. As well as what positions they occupied and what tasks they were set. The Alpha snipers even made a statement asking them to check their weapons - they are convinced that this will prove their complete innocence. So who killed on the Maidan? We are talking about this today with the staff of the Crimean unit "Berkut" ...
The base "Berkut" in Simferopol still resembles a besieged fortress. After the government of Yanukovych actually betrayed the security forces, and the new "revolutionary" leadership of Ukraine gave instructions to disband the special forces, the Crimeans came to the defense of their "Berkut".
Several days passed in anticipation of the assault. It is terrible to imagine what could happen here. In Lviv, the “Right Sector” formed “friendship trains” with armed fighters for shipment to Simferopol, and special forces veterans came to help Berkutovtsy from all over the Crimea. “Fascists, chanting, remember, bastard, about 9 May!” - warns a large poster on the gate of the base. “Golden Eagle, remember your name!” Says another.
“In the daytime they are calm, holy, and at night they turned into some kind of demons.” Fire, poisonous smoke, tires burn, stones fly. Sometimes it seemed that we were at war with the "werewolves." I remember one day when a priest of the Greek-Catholic Church came out and stood up with a cross in the middle of the Grushevsky street. And while he stood like that, holding up the cross, a barricade grew up behind him. By evening, the priest was gone, but the barricade remained. They grab stones, incendiary mixtures - and the heat has gone. They fire us, and we water them.
The fighter of the Crimean detachment "Berkut" Vsevolod Orlov
We did not pursue anyone to catch, kill. We had a clear: hold up - and into the car. Documents are processed there, the case is transferred to the court. Next - a prison. 200 people planted. And on February 17 they were all released.
Vsevolod Orlov, an employee of the Crimean "Golden Eagle", spent in the center of Kiev 80 days. Three buses with Crimeans arrived in the capital of 26 in November. On New Year's, they were allowed to go home for 5 days. Then - the second trip. February 21 Wounded Vsevolod on the plane taken to Simferopol. And already 26-th people who seized power in Kiev, disbanded the "Golden Eagle".
“I was injured on February 18,” Orlov says. - On that day, the Verkhovna Rada decided to discuss the issue of a return to the Constitution of 2004. They pulled us to the center, as they were waiting for provocations. We cordoned off the government quarter around the perimeter, and the guys from Maidan cordoned off us. They came well prepared, they had everything with them: bits, axes, pebbles and incendiary mixtures. They captured our truck, which blocked the road. We tried this truck push through our system. Then he quickly rolled back, while crushing some of their own. In the officers' house they immediately made a first-aid post: they already knew that there would be victims. On the 12 of the day, a deputy comes to the Maidan’s rostrum. He says: “Hurray, we have put the 2004 Constitution of the year up for discussion, we are winning!” Everyone shouts: “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes! ”Not even two minutes pass, as they begin to storm the entire government quarter in a circle. On Grushevskogo they set fire to the wheels. On Institutskaya Street, on the Serf - wherever KamAZ vehicles stood, blocking the way to government buildings, they set fire to all the equipment. Throw us stones.
- Was the assault somehow provoked by you?
- Not. They started first. They always attacked first.
“If we had a weapon, then the final would have been different.”
- We were standing in the Mariinsky park. We had unarmed anti-Maidans with us, including women and children. They understood that if Bandera breaks through, everyone will get it. Molotov cocktails were already flying into us, I caught fire two times, they put me out. We pushed Bandera on the Serf, whom we managed to - caught, issued. Then we went to the Maidan. On Institutskaya 80% of paving slabs were no longer there: it lay folded up in order to fly to the police officers. The shafts were this tile.
- What were you armed with?
- We were not armed. We were equipped with the “Wave” plan. "Khvylya" in Ukrainian. This is a suppression of riots. It provides such equipment: aluminum shields on arms and legs, body armor of the second class (a bullet pierces through it), gas masks, a rubber stick, a shield, a gas, handcuffs, light-noise grenades, a plastic helmet. This helmet shatters after the second or third blow to the head. And on the Maidan, people were in army helmets. If we had a weapon, then the final would be different.
- Did the protesters have a weapon?
- Already in the afternoon in the Mariinsky park they used firearms. But shot from the hip. And we have many were injured in the legs. One of our employees had both legs shot through. He was still with us for half an hour, until he noticed the blood. I thought, just stones hit my legs. Another was wounded in the leg of a traumatic weapon, the third was stabbed. Fourth broke his helmet. The 5 – 6 man was injured during the day. In general, they were armed with a variety of: axes, knives, flails, maces.
"Peaceful protesters" with a firearm
"A bullet hit Andrew in the heart"
- We took positions on Institutskaya, at the arch, where the clock is on the right side. There were three ramparts, three barricades. We stood just in front of them. A loudspeaker arrived. He said that an antiterrorist action would be held, in connection with which everyone was being asked to leave the square. This was continuously broadcast over 6 hours. And all these 6 watches, the militants were preparing to meet with us. In the middle of the street, they quickly laid out a wall of pebbles, showered all the wheels. From the stage, the presenter led all this “parade”: he pointed out where to bring the firewood, where the pebbles were. About eight o'clock in the evening we received a command to go to the Maidan, displacing people. We had a task to get to the stage. The "mopping up" of Maidan began. The security forces attacked only from Institutskaya and Grushevsky Street, leaving people with many ways of escape.
Water cannons arrived, but there was little use for them. Only the fires were a little extinguished. And from Maidan, a hydraulic gun began to work on us. After 15 minutes, the first injured employee left, and after 15 - the second one. The whole Khreshchatyk was already burning. Everything was burning: tires, tents with property — the maydanovtsy set it all on fire. On Hrushevsky, our colleagues made their way and seized the Ukrainian House. There was their headquarters and workshop for the manufacture of axes, clubs, shields and body armor. Until midnight, we advanced a maximum of 30 – 40 meters. Various objects flew to us, starting with bolts, nuts, stones, incendiary mixtures and ending with bullets. In 11 hours, my friend, Andrey Fedyukin, was killed. He stood inside the line, not in front and not behind. Fifth to sixth rank. And suddenly he fell. The bullet hit him in the heart. It turned out that he was killed by a 5,56 caliber bullet - this is the “NATO” standard, such cartridges are used, for example, when shooting with the American M16 rifle. A similar shot could only be done from above, from the House of Trade Unions, where the headquarters of the Maidan was located.
- How were you injured?
- Our commander came running at night in 12, reported that the October Palace had been repulsed. It was decided to attack with all forces from both sides. A water cannon takes off, we run after it. Fireworks and explosives are flying into us. I run across the street, run into a cloud of acrid smoke, it's impossible to breathe. The gas mask was no longer working, I just threw it out. There is an explosion, I fall. I get up, look at my hand and see a naked bone. At this time, the barricades were already hand-to-hand fighting.
The deceased fighter "Berkut" Andrei Fedyukin
Doctors said: “Go to yours!”
“Is the war over for you?”
- In fact, everything was just beginning. The ambulance took me with another colleague to the MIA hospital. And there they do not accept: the hospital is jammed. We were tricked into a regular city hospital. We did not want to go there: they understood that militants could get us there. In the dressing room, I saw a lot of seriously injured police officers. When I brought a guy from the traffic police. He said that their crew was stopped on the road, they were all laid on the ground and shot at point-blank range. Two of his comrades were killed, and he was lucky: the bullets were tangential. The “peaceful protesters” already drank blood and could not stop. At night, the hunt for police officers began in the city. In the morning, militants approached the hospital: they learned that the wounded were being brought there. After that, everyone who was still able to stand on their feet was discharged. Without any drugs, with one piece of paper. They said: “Go to yours!” I stand in my burnt form, call a taxi. The taxi driver says: “Friend, I'm not taking you. "Right Sector" walks around the city, checks the cars. " One girl helped me, brought to ours.
- What was your injury?
- Open joint fracture. Plus acoustic ear injury and chemical poisoning. I coughed a month later. Bandera took the wheel, stuffed it with various chemicals: saltpeter, sulfur, tablets Analgin. When the tire was set on fire, it gave poisonous smoke. They even shot at us with ammonia. Usual such a pharmaceutical jar. The gas mask worked no more than an hour, then the filter was clogged with it.
Vsevolod’s father, retired police lieutenant colonel Konstantin Orlov, enters the conversation:
- My son came to Crimea in civilian life. His form burned out. Already Yanukovych was blown away, anarchy began. And the wounded were placed in civilian hospitals. Then I turned to the commander of the Black Sea fleet with a request to protect the wounded soldiers of the "Golden Eagle". The admiral gave the command to place them in the hospital of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. Some are still undergoing treatment. One was sent to Moscow: his bullet was stuck in his lung. The other does not have 4 centimeters of bone on the arm, the third hole between the nameless and the little finger, fingers had to be collected on knitting needles.
Only on the night from 18 to 19 February, 28 fighters of the Crimean "Golden Eagle" were wounded, one was killed. Most injuries are gunshot wounds. Two officers of the internal troops were also brought to the Crimea dead. Still here they are persistently talking about seven civilians who died during the attack of militants on buses with Crimean anti-Maidans. Such is the price that Crimea paid for the “peaceful civil protest” in Kiev.
"Anarchy has come over Perekop"
- How did the House of Trade Unions burn out? - I ask Vsevolod.
“It burned down simply: the militants themselves set it on fire from the inside to destroy the evidence.” I guess they had something there that needed to be destroyed. There was a laboratory in which they made incendiary mixtures, a smithy in which they cooked armor for themselves. In addition, people on the Maidan sometimes disappeared. Where did they go? The house of trade unions was a “secure object”, only their own people were allowed in there, by passes. Maybe there were holding unnecessary people in captivity. Or let them in the flow in the basement. Somehow a berkutovets got there, his leg was broken, two knife wounds. He was then unconsciously thrown over the barricades. Saved by the fact that his capture was removed by journalists. Otherwise, the person might just disappear.
- During the fire in the House of Trade Unions were people?
- Yes. And how many corpses were burned there, no one will ever know. Until now, do not give figures for missing. Why did the Right Sector seize the morgue and crematorium in Kiev right after the coup? No body - no case. Police in Ukraine is not working now. People take apartments, squeeze business. Over Perekop came anarchy.
- How was your Kiev business trip paid?
- We received the usual salary. Plus travel, of which they themselves paid for the hotel and meals. No surcharges. We even had no insurance.
- You shot at the protesters?
- Only from traumatic weapons. We had no other. Plus, put according to the law spetssredstva. The order for a business trip was “the protection of public order”. They used light-noise and gas grenades. When you are wearing a mask and goggles, the effect of a gas grenade is the same as pushing dichlorvos with a fly that sits on the glass on the other side of the window. And with light and noise came out such story. Just before the New Year they ended. In Vinnitsa there is a factory "Fort", which produces special means for the police. From there we were brought grenades, which have specifically reduced the deceleration time. When you pull the check, the grenade immediately explodes in your hands. A lot of people suffered from this.
- The first people on the Maidan were killed by hunting bullets. Can I shoot them from your carbines?
No, they are intended only for non-lethal ammunition. When you try to shoot a hunting cartridge, the carbine will break in your hands ...
Secrets of Maidan - 2
“The fighters stood to the last. Question: for what?
Vladimir Krashevsky, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Veterans of the Special Forces "Berkut", holds a chevron with scraps of camouflage uniform. Bird of prey on a black background. “This is the chevron of a friend who died in 1995,” he says. - The Ukrainian flags then with the stripes fighters otparivali manually. We have long resisted the introduction of symbols of Ukrainian statehood. And in our hearts we never left Russia. Instead of portraits of Bandera, we had portraits of General Vasily Margelov and the commander of the Vityaz special forces Sergei Lysyuk. ”
Kraszewski leads me through endless corridors and base crossings. The base is ready for defense. On the grass in the spring sun spotted frogs armored personnel carriers are heated. In one of the rooms I see a portrait of Putin on the wall. “It has been hanging here for years 15,” explains Vladimir. - As a symbol of the country, which we have always remembered and in which we sought to return. Although there was no hope for it anymore. ”
Oh, no wonder, I think, Kiev politicians suspected the Crimean "Golden Eagle" of all mortal sins. It was this unit that became the main target in the information war.
“To accuse the special forces fighters for carrying out their official duties is ridiculous,” Kraszewski says. - “Golden Eagle” is a tool. He may be in good hands or bad. Like a sniper rifle. If the sniper rifle is in the hands of the killer and he kills a person from it, you will not bring the rifle to trial? It is ridiculous to say that our employees were behind Yanukovich. One can only discuss how professionally they acted.
Vladimir Krashevsky based on the "Berkut" in Simferopol.
- They acted professionally?
- Not always. You, probably, watched a video where a person is literally driven into the asphalt with sticks. It is not clear who it is, but it is clear that he is unarmed. This indicates a complete lack of professionalism of employees. About their moral and psychological unwillingness to take part in the localization of mass riots. Or a video with a "naked Cossack". No matter how naked he was. But already for the fact that employees were taking pictures with him, this whole group would also be worth undressing and throwing over the barricades. This is if a man. You can not be like the opposite side. The motive of the employee’s actions cannot be, for example, “revenge for the dead friends”. Such people cannot be sent to such tasks.
- What explains such incidents?
- "Berkut" never had a single preparatory center and a single leadership. Each squad was subordinate to the police leadership of its area. The level of training units was different. In Simferopol and Lugansk, annual certification was carried out on the right to wear spotted berets. We know what a combat situation and loss is. And somewhere "Golden Eagle" was such an elite PPP. On the Maidan everything got out. The betrayal in the top management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service of Ukraine, and intelligence agencies also affected. Information completely merged. Surnames, data, grandmothers, grandfathers, that you ate for lunch. People did not have time to get the task, as they already knew about it on the other side.
- Sometimes the actions of the security forces were striking in their absurdity. Is cleaning Maidan really an insoluble task?
- It could be done very quickly. Professionals understand that if such a gathering does not immediately disperse, then in two weeks there will be "Molotov cocktails", after two more - a weapon. But there was no political will. "Berkut" sat without communication, without a single focal point. After the first “Molotov cocktail”, according to the law on the police, it was possible to use standard weapon. Article 15, paragraph 3. But the team did not give. "Stay down." "Are they burning?" - Stay. Already many shoes burned, fingers stuck out. People with burns, with wounds. Cannon fodder. And in fact until the last stood. Question: for what?
The police were burned with Molotov cocktails.
- Berkutovtsy were accused of anything: that people are taken to the forest, killed, tortured ... Could this be the case?
- Everyone knows what the selection is in the special forces. Mentally unbalanced is not there. They will not pass the tests. And all of a sudden, everything was brutally brutalized. Hundreds of times dispersed rallies, no one was killed. And then furious. The image of the enemy was needed, and the Golden Eagle was assigned to this role. Of course, there were violations on our part. But that particular employee who exceeded his authority and the demonstrator who threw the Molotov cocktail at him should also answer. He wanted to burn a man alive. In the West, a policeman would have simply shot him for this without remorse.
"Snipers on the Maidan are not related to the security forces"
“Did your people have a weapon?”
- The Crimean detachment traveled without weapons and returned without weapons. They even banned pistols from officers.
- What units, except for "Berkut" and internal troops, were involved in Kiev on the side of the authorities?
- At the final stage, when the counter-terrorist operation was declared, the special forces of the Omega internal troops and the Special Operations Center “A” of the Ukrainian Security Council were involved.
- Did they have snipers?
- Of course. There are snipers in both Alpha and Omega. But there are records of negotiations, no one hides a weapon. It is in the weapon rooms. You can conduct a ballistic examination. Each weapon has been shot and assigned to a specific person. It is easy to establish whether the demonstrators were killed from these trunks. Only the desire is not in the new government. Because it will be proved that the snipers who worked on the Maidan have nothing to do with the security forces. There are many professional shooters in the world who will work for good money. By the way, in Ukraine you can buy a serious sniper rifle with a hunting ticket.
- So you are sure that the blood of the “heavenly hundred” is not on the team of Yanukovich?
- Sure.
- How do you then comment on the video of the fighters who shoot back, which clearly shows the lying sniper?
- The sniper from Omega, and the fighters with yellow armbands in black uniforms are the fighters of the mixed squad of the Kiev Berkut (special purpose company) and Omega. But this group simply physically could not shoot at those people who, with shields, were rising on Institutskaya. Mostly they were shot from behind or from the side, from positions where there were no security forces at all. Under the feet, three meters from the people, the security forces fired, but to kill - no.
- They claimed that 20 February was the first victims of snipers fighters "Berkut". This is true?
- Snipers worked on the "Berkut" and the soldiers of the explosives unequivocally. Moreover, the staff and maydanovtsev shot the same bullets. This was confirmed by the examination in Kiev. However, the new government is not interested in the announcement of its results.
"Yarosh was accompanied by officers of the Security Service of Ukraine"
- Did the ultranationalist cells exist in Crimea?
- Yes. I even know specifically where and who headed them. The SBU operatives know that perfectly well. For example, Dmitry Yarosh, then unknown to anyone, visited us in the mountains, brought here a hundred people. And they drove across the mountains - do you know who? SBU officers. Of course, by order of his Kiev authorities.
- Strange things involved your SBU.
“Under Kuchma, they worked in the Crimea mainly on Wahhabis and all sorts of radical movements among the Tatars. Yushchenko came - everything, we work only against Russia. Thanks to Yushchenko, the radical Hizb ut-Tahrir radical group banned everywhere in the Crimea are well today. The heroization of fascist henchmen began. The worst thing is that this work took place at the level of the first persons of the state and the SBU. There was created a special department, which was engaged in the destruction or cleaning of archival documents relating to the crimes of the OUN-UPA. In parallel, dozens of pseudo-historical books were printed, which praised Bandera and warriors of the SS division "Galicia". Exhibitions were held, meetings with surviving "heroes". By the way, at the expense of the budget.
- How did the Crimean Berkut get out of Kiev?
- On the Golden Eagle and the soldiers of the explosives was declared a hunt. There were roadblocks of tires up to 800 meters on all roads, people stood with weapons. In Uman, buses with Crimean anti-Maidan burned down, several people were killed. Then fired on the Sevastopol "Alpha". Therefore, behind our board they sent a cover group from a special forces company. People were stuffed to the fullest, like in Chechnya. The group arrived at a sanatorium near Kiev, the home base of the Crimean detachment, and deputies from the UDAR party immediately showed up. They say: here is a list of your names, a list of weapons, the number of the board on which you flew. We make you a corridor, and you quickly get out of here. But left only the next day on command.
- What mood did you go home with?
“We knew that the people in Crimea were for us.” But others were worse. When the bus returned home with the Lviv Berkut, they were told by telephone that their base had been burned to the ground and two employees had died there. One guy then asked to stop the bus. Thought wants to smoke. But he went to the oncoming lane and committed suicide by throwing himself under a passing car.
- How did the fighters die at the Lviv base?
- They were shot and burned. And now we see the "continuation of the banquet" in Kharkov, Donetsk, Lugansk. It is clear that the same thing would be here. We waited for the assault by the militants of the Right Sector and the radical Crimean Tatars. Of course, so simply we would not have surrendered. We have 4 BTR-80 with full armament and ammunition, automatic weapons, grenades ... The base was strengthened with sandbags. A lot of special forces veterans came to us then, hunters with their weapons, ordinary citizens. They provided control of the outer perimeter of the base, since we could not do this due to the liquidation. We were all ready to go to the end.
- Would you resist?
- It is unlikely that the base would become the second Brest Fortress, but it would be very difficult to take us with our bare hands.
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