The "snipers’ massacre" on the Maidan in Ukraine

Abstract

This study analyzes which party of the conflict was involved in the 2014 Maidan massacre in Ukraine. The massacre of Maidan protesters and the police on 20 February 2014 was a turning point in Ukrainian politics. This mass killing led to the overthrow of the Ukrainian government and spiraled into a civil war in Donbas, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, the Russian annexation of Crimea, and conflicts between Ukraine and Russia and between the West and Russia that Russia drastically escalated by launching its illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This article proposes and tests the moral hazard theory of the state repression backfire. Content analysis of synchronized videos, testimonies by several hundred witnesses, confessions by 14 self-admitted members of Maidan sniper groups, and bullet hole locations show that both the police and protesters were massacred by Maidan snipers located in Maidan-controlled buildings and areas. Content analysis of synchronized videos revealed that the specific time and direction of shooting by Berkut policemen, who were charged with the massacre, did not coincide with the killing of specific protesters. Testimonies by the absolute majority of wounded protesters and some 100 witnesses and forensic examinations by ballistic and medical experts for the Maidan massacre trial and investigation in Ukraine corroborate this. The article shows that the false-flag massacre was rationally organized and carried out with the involvement of oligarchic and far-right elements of the Maidan opposition to overthrow the incumbent government in Ukraine.