My studies found that the Maidan massacre was a false-flag mass killing of the protestors and the police in order to seize power in Ukraine. It was conducted with the involvement of oligarchic and far-right elements of the Maidan opposition using concealed groups of Maidan snipers in Maidan-controlled buildings. The evidence shows this beyond any reasonable doubt.
Baldwin: It sounds like your work on these events has been censored. Please explain what challenges you’ve had in presenting and publishing your work and why you think this has been happening.
Katchanovski: My comprehensive article concerning the Maidan massacre was accepted for publication with minor revisions by a major peer-reviewed journal but then the decision was reversed in a clear case of political censorship. My appeal, with a supporting letter by Jeffrey Sachs, was rejected. Now the same article has been published as two separate articles in two other major peer-reviewed journals.
In retaliation for my academic studies of the Maidan massacre, my own house, land, and all property in Western Ukraine were seized by court decisions, which were issued on the orders from the top, despite all the documents and dozens of witness testimonies and in reversals of the decisions by the same judges and courts which confirmed my ownership. My house and all my property there have been damaged.
I faced ad hominem attacks, denunciations and defamation from a few researchers, most of whom are linked to the Ukrainian far right and obviously have vested interest in whitewashing the far right and denying their involvement in the false flag mass killing of the Maidan protesters.
A far-right activist linked to Svoboda, which my studies show was implicated in the Maidan massacre, was involved in the creation of several dozens of identical blogs and social media sites calling me “falsifier of the Maidan massacre.” It is telling that he used what he called “scientific anti-Semitism” to justify the OUN-led pogrom of Jews in Nazi-occupied Lviv.
A small group of Wikipedia editors resorted to similar defamation and fraud in order to whitewash the far right and the far-right involvement in the mass murder of the Maidan protesters and the police. They systematically whitewash the contemporary far right in Ukraine and their historical predecessors from the OUN and the UPA, and their Nazi collaboration and involvement in mass murder of Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians, and smear and defame many scholars of Ukraine.
They include editors who were identified by “Wikipedia’s Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust” article by the University of Ottawa professor. Most of them are identified by various publications and online sources as academics, who are not experts in Ukraine but whitewash the far right and Maidan mass murders and smear scholars either because of political agenda or even possibly for pay.
But my Maidan massacre studies were reported or cited, overwhelmingly positively by over 100 Western scholars and experts. Such leading scholars and experts as Richard Sakwa, (University of Kent), Professor David Lane (Cambridge University), Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia University), Jack Matlock (Duke University and the former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union), Stephen F. Cohen (New York University), Anatol Lieven (Quincy Institute), and many others in their peer-reviewed articles, books, and media publications either accepted my research findings concerning the Maidan massacre or [have] written favorably about my studies of this massacre.
Similarly, more than a hundred Western media outlets and over 50 Ukrainian media outlets positively reported or cited findings of my Maidan massacre studies: They include major American, Austrian, Canadian, Danish, Dutch, German, Greek, Italian, New Zealand, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swiss media outlets such as The Nation, Huffington Post, Courthouse News, Jacobin, Consortium News, Counterpunch, The Grayzone, Truthout, and Ukraina Moloda.
Their number is dozens of times higher than the few Western and Ukrainian media which attacked or denounced my Maidan massacre studies by resorting to outright fraud or the deliberate omission of overwhelming evidence revealed by my studies and the Maidan massacre trial.
But the absolute majority of the Western media deliberately does not report concerning findings of my studies of this massacre and various overwhelming evidence that this was a false-flag operation with the far-right involvement.
In contrast, my interviews, comments and publications concerning my other research areas, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the war in Donbas and World War Two, appeared in more than 3,000 media reports in some 75 countries. They include the following media: Associated Press, BBC Ukrainian, Canadian Press, CBC News, CTV News, Daily Express, France 24, Global TV, Globe and Mail, The Guardian, Hill TV, Le Figaro, National Post, Reuters, Times Higher Education, Toronto Star, Vice, Voice of America, The Washington Post, Euronews, Sky News Australia and CNN Brazil.
My research-based tweets and interviews concerning the standing ovation to the SS Galicia Division veteran by the Canadian parliament, the Canadian prime-minister and [Ukraine’s President Volodymyr] Zelensky were reported by several hundred media in dozens of countries and helped to make it the top story in Canada and one of major stories in the U.S., Poland and other countries.
"Canada needs to denounce Ukrainian Nazi unit, not honour it, says uOttawa professor who uncovered veteran's SS links. But Ivan Katchanovski, a Ukrainian-Canadian professor at the University of Ottawa who is at the centre of uncovering Hunka’s past, said it’s time for Canada to… pic.twitter.com/CMQC4ooHI6
— Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) September 25, 2023
There is also outright media censorship concerning my Maidan massacre research. A popular Polish media outlet Onet removed my interview following a request from the office of president of Poland. British OpenDemocracy accepted for publication in 2014 a popular version of my original study but did not publish it. A dozen of my interviews concerning the Maidan massacre were either not reported or canceled by major TV networks, radio stations and newspapers in the U.S., Canada and the EU.
My applications for research funding or research positions in Canada and the U.S. were denied since I first presented my study of the Maidan massacre in 2014, including during the current war, even though I am one of the most cited political scientists specializing primarily in the conflicts and politics in Ukraine and earlier held such research positions at Harvard, the University of Toronto, and the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.
Katchanovski: The Maidan massacre trial, which started in 2015, examined charges against five members of Berkut [a special police unit] who are charged with the massacre of the Maidan protesters on Feb. 20, 2014.
My recent peer-reviewed journal article and video appendixes show that the absolute majority of wounded protesters testified at the trial and the investigation that they were in fact shot by snipers from Maidan-controlled buildings or areas or that they witnessed snipers there.
Some 100 prosecution and defense witnesses and relatives of killed protesters also testified about snipers in the Maidan-controlled buildings and areas. This is consistent with testimonies by several hundred other witnesses and confessions by 14 self-admitted members of Maidan sniper groups.
Statements by the far-right Svoboda Party, videos and numerous witnesses show that the Hotel Ukraina and other buildings, which were locations of snipers who massacred the protesters and the police, were controlled then by the Maidan forces. My analysis of synchronized videos revealed Maidan snipers in these buildings during the massacre.
Forensic medical examinations by government experts showed that nearly all protesters were shot from the top, the back, and from the side directions, which match these Maidan-controlled buildings.
Government forensic ballistic experts determined that many protesters were killed or wounded from the Hotel Ukraina and other Maidan-controlled buildings or areas. A forensic ballistic examination by government experts with use of an automatic computer-based system found that bullets extracted from killed protesters did not match bullets from the Kalashnikov assault rifles of Berkut police. My analysis of synchronized videos showed that the specific time and direction of shooting by Berkut policemen did not coincide with the killing of specific protesters.
But the government investigation in Ukraine in a most blatant cover-up simply denies that there were any snipers in these Maidan controlled buildings in spite of the undeniable evidence. As part of such a cover-up, no one was convicted or under arrest for the massacre of the protesters and the police for almost 10 years after this massacre, which was one of the most documented cases of mass killing in history.
Crucial evidence, such as security cameras recordings, bullets, shields and helmets, “disappeared” or were destroyed. There is also tampering with evidence, such as bullets and forensic ballistic examinations, whose results were reversed without any explanation and contrary to videos, witnesses and forensic medical examinations. There is no trial for the killing of the police even though Maidan snipers, in particular, members of a far-right-linked group, publicly confessed in Ukrainian and Western media interviews of killing or shooting the police during the massacre.
Baldwin: Given that Ukraine is your family homeland, what is currently happening there must inform your work in a way that is different from other experts who may not have a personal connection. How has this war, both from 2014 and from 2022, personally affected you and your family?
Katchanovski: My relatives live in Western Ukraine which was not much affected by the war. One distant relative was wounded during the war in Donbas. My best friend, who lived then in Mariupol with his family, disappeared after the Russian invasion in 2022. We studied together at Central European University in Prague and communicated over Skype often when he was in Mariupol or taught in American universities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Full Interview Here: https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/20/the-maidan-massacre-censorship-ukraine/
More:
https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/07/ukraines-biggest-arms-supplier-orchestrated-2014-maidan-massacre-witnesses-say/
Paper presented at the virtual 10th World Congress of the International Council for Central and East European Studies, Concordia University, Montreal, August 3-8, 2021
Updated November 29, 2021
Conclusion
The Maidan massacre trials and investigations have revealed various evidence that the police and at least the absolute majority of 49 killed and 157 wounded Maidan protesters on February 20, 2014 were massacred by snipers in Maidan-controlled buildings and areas. Such evidence includes testimonies of the absolute majority of wounded protesters, several dozen prosecution and dozens of defense witnesses. The Prosecutor General Office investigation Determined that about half of Maidan protesters were wounded from other locations than the Berkut police positions on the ground.
Since the investigation and the trial did not reveal any “third force” snipers, this means that the Maidan snipers with the involvement of the elements of the Maidan leadership perpetrated this massacre. This is consistent with various evidence, such as videos of Maidan snipers in the Maidan-controlled buildings and areas during the massacre and testimonies by 14 self-admitted members of Maidan sniper groups.
Videos presented at the trial confirmed that specific times of shooting of specific protesters in the absolute majority of cases did not coincide with times of shooting by the Berkut policemen and directions of their shooting. This visual evidence alone shows beyond any doubt that the Berkut policemen, who are charged with the massacre of the protesters, did not massacre at least the absolute majority of killed and wounded Maidan protesters on February 20. The videos made public during the trial, such as the Belgian VRT TV video, provided evidence that the Maidan protesters were lured and then massacred by snipers from the Maidan-controlled buildings, such as the Hotel Ukraina.
Forensic medical examinations determined that the absolute majority of the protesters were shot from steep directions from the sides and back. This is consistent with locations of the Maidan-controlled buildings and areas and inconsistent with the locations of the Berkut police on the ground. Initial ballistic examinations did not match bullets extracted from the bodies of killed and wounded protesters to the Berkut Kalashnikovs. Forensic examinations of the bullet holes by the government experts for the Maidan massacre trial suggested that Berkut policemen were mostly shooting above the Maidan protesters into the Hotel Ukraina, which was the main location of the snipers.
Killing and wounding of a small minority of protesters by the Berkut police, in particular, by ricochets or in crossfire with snipers in the Maidan-controlled buildings, cannot be excluded because of the lack of publicly available data or because of contradictory data. But their killing and wounding in the same locations and at the same time as other protesters suggest that most of them were also likely shot by the Maidan snipers. The trials and investigations have not revealed any evidence that Yanukovych or his law enforcement ministers and commanders ordered the massacre of the Maidan protesters.
There are various indications of stonewalling of the Maidan massacre investigations and the trials by the Maidan governments and far right organizations and the cover-up of much of the key evidence of the massacre. The investigation denied presence of any snipers in the Maidan-controlled buildings in spite of the overwhelming evidence. The Maidan massacre investigation and trial were stonewalled, charges against Berkut policemen and later two Omega members were trumped up, and much of the evidence destroyed in order to cover-up involvement of Maidan leaders and snipers in this mass killing. Not a single person has been convicted or under arrest for the Maidan massacre of the protesters and the police on February 18-20, 2014 after almost eight years of the investigations and six years of the trials in spite of this case of political violence being one of the best documented cases of the mass murder in history and one of the most significant human rights violations in independent Ukraine.
No one was charged with attempted murders of almost half of the wounded protesters on February 20.
Such revelations from the Maidan massacre trials and investigations corroborate findings of the previous academic studies that this massacre was a false flag mass killing with involvement of elements of Maidan leadership and the far right and that it included the massacre of the police. The puzzling misrepresentation of the Maidan massacre, its investigation, and the trial by Western governments and the media requires further research concerning reasons for such misrepresentation.
The revelations from the trials and investigations which confirm that the Maidan massacre of the protesters and the police was a false flag operation which involved Maidan snipers and elements of the Maidan leadership have major implications for understanding not only this crucial case of political violence in Ukraine. They have major implications for understanding the “Euromaidan” and the origins of the violent conflict in Ukraine and the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and between Russia and the West. The revelations from the Maidan massacre trials and investigations show that the narratives promoted by the Ukrainian and Western governments and with some notable exceptions the media that the Maidan protesters were massacred by government snipers and/or the Berkut police are false. Contrary to the dominant narratives, the mass “Euromaidan” protests failed to achieve a political transition. This massacre started an armed conflict in Ukraine that led to the Ukrainian government overthrow and escalated into the secession and annexation of Crimea by Russia, the civil war in Donbas, Russian military interventions in Crimea and Donbas, and major protracted conflicts between Ukraine and Russia and the West and Russia.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356691143_The_Maidan_Massacre_in_Ukraine_Revelations_from_Trials_and_Investigation
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 … ”
https://newcoldwar.org/bombshell-revelations-italian-television-documentary-sniper-shootings-maidan-square-february-20-2014-staged-provoke-coup-detat/
RE: It's Ovyr: ”Maidan 3”; "1 Million Shells A Day"; "West Biggest Obstacle To Ukraine Peace"; "RU Superior In Everything", Especially Trenches; "Counter-Offensive Is Ovyr"; "New Definition Of Winning"; Avdeevka Progress, DoomingHard and Much More