Kiev blames Putin aide for Maidan square killings by snipers

Ukraine says a close adviser of Russian president Vladimir Putin sent snipers to conduct the mass shootings in Kiev that brought its pro-western revolution to a bloody climax a year ago.

As Ukrainians marked the anniversary yesterday of the death of more than 50 protesters on the Maidan square, the president Petro Poroshenko said investigators had "established a clear Russian fingerprint" on the atrocity.

He said members of Ukraine’s Alpha special forces unit had testified that “Vladislav Surkov, an aide to the Russian president, led the organisation of foreign sniper groups on Maidan”.

Russia’s foreign ministry dismissed as “nonsense” the claims against Mr Surkov, who has been one of Mr Putin’s closest advisers for many years and now works on Ukrainian issues; he was part of the Russian delegation at recent ceasefire talks in Belarus.

Recordings of private conversations between former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich and "representatives of Russian security agencies" showed they "planned the shooting together in advance", Mr Poroshenko said.

Deadliest day

On February 20th last year, dozens of protesters were killed on Maidan, most by snipers. The carnage took the death toll for the revolution to more than 100 people, including about a dozen policemen, three of whom were shot on the uprising’s deadliest day.

On the night of February 21st, Mr Yanukovich fled Kiev, escaping to Russia via Crimea. Within a month, Moscow had annexed the Black Sea peninsula, and within two it was backing a separatist insurgency in parts of eastern Ukraine.

“Before Maidan’s victory, in Moscow they were already preparing to liquidate and dismember Ukraine,” Mr Poroshenko said.

Valentin Nalivaichenko, the head of Ukraine’s security service, said three groups of officers from Russia’s Federal Security Service – which Mr Putin led in 1998/9 – visited Kiev to plan an operation by snipers whom he claimed shot protesters and riot police, fuelling the public rage that drove out Mr Yanukovich.

Russian officials have denied involvement in the Maidan killings, and Mr Yanukovich’s former allies accuse radical Ukrainian nationalists in the protest movement of organising the shootings.

Thousands of people attended an emotional memorial ceremony on Maidan last night, and laid flowers and candles to honour the “Heavenly Hundred” who died.

Mr Poroshenko admitted too little had been done to bring those responsible for the killings to justice – only three Ukrainian ex-policemen have been charged – and many people are furious at the authorities’ inaction on the case and failure to tackle corruption and cronyism.

Ukrainians are also deeply troubled by the faltering conduct of a campaign against Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which has killed more than 5,600 people and driven well over one million from their homes.

Shelling continued in several areas yesterday, even after militants seized the key transport hub of Debaltseve, and German and French leaders agreed with Mr Poroshenko and Mr Putin to relaunch a beleaguered ceasefire plan.

Kiev’s military said Russia had sent more tanks to the separatists, even as senior US politicians and some EU leaders called for tighter sanctions on Moscow.