The final chapter summarizes the main findings of the comprehensive evidence-based and theoretically-based analysis of the Maidan massacre in Ukraine. The analysis of various evidence, such as synchronized videos, audio recordings, testimonies of the absolute majority of wounded Maidan protesters, and some 500 other witnesses, shows beyond any reasonable doubt that the Maidan protesters and the police were massacred by Maidan snipers located in Maidan-controlled buildings in a rationally organized operation with involvement of far-right and oligarchic elements of the Maidan opposition. This mass killing led to the overthrow of the Yanukovych government and ultimately to the Russian annexation of Crimea, the civil war and Russian military interventions in Donbas, and the Ukraine-Russia and West-Russia conflicts which Russia escalated by illegally invading Ukraine in 2022.

The systematic analysis of various evidence found that the Maidan massacre of the protestors and the police on February 18–20, 2014, was a successful false-flag operation that was rationally organized and conducted by elements of the Maidan leadership and concealed groups of Maidan snipers in Maidan-controlled buildings in order to win the asymmetric conflict during the “Euromaidan” and seize power in Ukraine. This massacre was a key element in the violent overthrow of the semi-democratic government of Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine.

The various types of evidence analyzed indicate that elements of far-right organizations, such as the Right Sector and Svoboda, and oligarchic Maidan parties, such as Fatherland, were directly or indirectly involved in various capacities in this massacre of the protesters and the police. Such a false-flag massacre by its nature could have been covertly organized and successfully carried out by only a small number of Maidan leaders and snipers.

The study shows that concealed armed groups of Maidan snipers, based in particular, in the Music Conservatory and Hotel Ukraina, started the most deadly massacre in the early morning on February 20 by targeting Berkut and Internal Troops units on the Maidan with live ammunition fire, inflicting their mass casualties, and forcing them to retreat. The armed Maidan groups of snipers, in particular the same ones, then massacred the unsuspecting Maidan protesters from concealed positions in more than 20 Maidan-controlled buildings and areas, in particular Hotel Ukraina, Zhovtnevyi Palace, and Bank Arkada.

Content analysis of synchronized videos, audio recordings, and photos, and analysis of various publicly available evidence showed that killed and wounded policemen and at least the absolute majority of 49 killed and 172 wounded Maidan protesters were massacred on February 20 by snipers in Maidan-controlled buildings and areas. The content analysis shows that at least eight videos filmed snipers in Maidan-controlled buildings and areas aiming or shooting at the Berkut police during the Maidan massacre. Their and other Maidan snipers’ admissions, witness testimonies, and content analysis revealed that six of these videos show Maidan snipers, in particular, from the far-right-linked special armed Maidan company. Snipers in Maidan-controlled buildings aiming at or shooting Maidan protesters are filmed in at least 14 videos. They included 10 videos in which these snipers were identified as Maidan snipers by Maidan protesters, journalists, content analysis, and other evidence. At least 26 videos show groups of armed Maidan snipers and spotters moving into, looking for, changing, or leaving shooting positions in Maidan-controlled buildings and areas. There were also more than 100 videos and reports of protesters, journalists, and policemen during the Maidan massacre itself pointing to or testifying about Maidan snipers or snipers in the Maidan-controlled buildings. This is consistent with the audio recordings of a group of such snipers shooting on commands.

The statement by the far-right Svoboda Party, videos, and testimonies by the Maidan self-defense commander, Maidan protesters, Ukrainian journalists, and Hotel Ukraina staff show that this hotel was guarded and controlled by the Maidan opposition, specifically Svoboda, before, during, and immediately after the massacre of the protesters and the police by snipers located in this hotel. Similar evidence shows control by the Maidan opposition of other buildings and areas from which snipers shot protesters and police.

Several hundred witnesses also reported in the media and social media snipers in Hotel Ukraina and other Maidan-controlled buildings during the massacre. A dozen of Maidan politicians and activists publicly stated that they witnessed the involvement of specific top Maidan leaders from oligarchic parties and far-right organizations in the massacre, such as their advance knowledge about the massacre, deployment of snipers, and evacuation of snipers who were captured by Maidan protesters. This is consistent with other evidence, such as testimonies by 14 self-admitted members of Maidan sniper groups, particularly from a far-right-linked Maidan company and Georgia.

Synchronized videos show that specific times and directions of shooting by the Berkut policemen did not coincide with the specific times and directions of shooting of specific protesters on February 20. A long German ARD TV video, which simultaneously captured the killings and wounding of protesters and the positions of the Berkut Police, also shows this. This visual evidence alone shows that the Berkut policemen, who were charged with the massacre of the protesters, did not massacre at least the absolute majority of killed and wounded Maidan protesters.

Various videos reveal snipers in the Maidan-controlled buildings and show that Maidan protesters were lured and then massacred by snipers from such Maidan-controlled buildings as Hotel Ukraina.

There is no specific evidence that Yanukovych or his ministers and commanders ordered or were involved in other ways in the massacre of Maidan protesters. Bullet hole locations showed that Berkut policemen were mostly shooting above and in front of the Maidan protesters, particularly above the protesters on the second and higher floors of Hotel Ukraina, which was the main location of the snipers, and in trees, poles, walls, and the ground. Evidence, such as videos and testimonies, also shows that American, British, German, Polish, and Russian journalists were shot at by snipers located in Maidan-controlled buildings.

There was no evidence of any “third-force” snipers, in particular Russian ones. Several Georgian self-admitted members of sniper groups testified in the media and for the Ukrainian trial and investigation that they and other Georgian and foreign snipers received orders from the Maidan opposition and ex-Georgian leaders.

The findings are corroborated by evidence from the Maidan massacre trial and investigation in Ukraine. Such evidence includes testimonies of the absolute majority of wounded Maidan protesters that they and other protesters were shot on February 20 by snipers in Hotel Ukraina and other Maidan-controlled buildings, and testimonies by nearly 100 prosecution and defense witnesses concerning such snipers. The evidence also includes videos presented at the trial, findings of forensic medical examinations that almost all the protesters were shot from steep directions from the sides or the back, determinations by government ballistic experts that many protesters were shot from Hotel Ukraina and other Maidan-controlled buildings, and initial ballistic examinations that did not match bullets extracted from the bodies of killed protesters to the Berkut Kalashnikovs. The cover-up of the snipers and the key evidence and stonewalling of the investigations and trials by the Maidan governments and the far-right, the denial by the prosecution and Maidan victims’ lawyers that there were any snipers in the Maidan-controlled buildings, the failure to convict anyone for the massacre of the police, and the striking fact that nobody has been serving prison sentence for the massacre of activists for more than 10 years after one of the most documented mass killings in history also corroborate this study.

Careful analysis of publicly available evidence, revealed during the Maidan massacre trials and investigations, shows beyond reasonable doubt that the four killed and several dozen wounded policemen, and nearly all of the 49 killed and 172 wounded Maidan protesters, on February 20, were shot by snipers in Maidan-controlled buildings and areas. Even the Ukrainian Prosecutor General Office investigation determined that about half of Maidan protesters were wounded from locations other than the Berkut police positions and did not charge anyone with their attempted murder. The GPU investigation also initially found that the snipers in the Hotel Ukraina massacred the protesters but cover-up this.

The absolute majority of wounded Maidan protesters, with whose shooting Berkut policemen are charged and whose testimonies were revealed at the trial, testified at the trial and the investigation that they were shot on February 20 by snipers from Hotel Ukraina and other Maidan-controlled buildings or witnessed snipers there. Nearly 100 witnesses, including dozens of the prosecution witnesses, also testified about snipers in these Maidan-controlled locations, in particular, massacring the police and the protesters.

Synchronized videos presented at the trial show that the times and directions of the shots by the Berkut policemen did not coincide with the times and directions at which specific protesters were killed. Other videos showed Maidan protesters being lured into positions that were exposed to snipers from such Maidan-controlled buildings as the Hotel Ukraina.

Forensic medical examinations by government experts determined that the majority of the protesters were shot on February 20 from a steep angle from either the side or back. This is consistent with locations of the Maidan-controlled buildings, and inconsistent with the locations of the Berkut police on the ground. Also, the initial ballistic examinations did not match the bullets extracted from the bodies of killed and wounded to the Kalashnikov rifles used by Berkut.

Nor did the trials and investigations reveal any evidence that President Yanukovych or his law enforcement ministers and commanders ordered the massacre. Forensic examinations of the bullet holes by the government experts and the videos they presented showed that the Berkut policemen were mostly shooting above the Maidan protesters, and in particular, into the Hotel Ukraina, which was the main location of the snipers.

The accidental killing and wounding of a small number of protesters by the Berkut police by ricochet bullets, or in a crossfire with snipers in the Maidan-controlled buildings, cannot be completely excluded because of the lack of publicly available data or because of contradictory data. But their killing and wounding together with other protesters suggests that they were also likely shot by the Maidan snipers.

There are various indications of stonewalling and cover-up of key evidence. It is noteworthy that the government investigation and Maidan victims’ lawyers denied presence of any snipers in the Maidan-controlled buildings, in spite of its own initial findings that no fewer than 13 protesters were killed, and at least 77 wounded, from shots fired from the Maidan-controlled buildings and areas. When bullet trajectories, as determined by government ballistic experts and lasers in on-site-investigative experiments, showed that many Maidan protesters had been shot at from Hotel Ukraina and other Maidan-controlled buildings, this result was covered-up and ballistic experts were no longer used. The GPU did not use ballistic experts to determine the bullet trajectories and locations of shooters in the overwhelming majority of cases even after being ordered to do so by the judge and the jury.

Unexplained reversals of results of some 40 forensic ballistic examinations, including computer-based examination which showed that bullets of Berkut Kalashnikovs did not match bullets from bodies of killed Maidan protesters, also suggest a cover-up and evidence tampering. Synchronized content analysis of the videos of the Berkut police and killed and wounded protesters along with locations and directions of wounds in forensic medical examination, testimonies of eyewitnesses among Maidan protesters, and on-site investigative experiments by government ballistic experts show that Maidan protesters could not had been physically shot from the Berkut positions.

The Maidan massacre trial verdict, which was issued by a Kyiv court in October 2023 shortly before the 10th anniversary of the Euromaidan, confirmed that many Maidan protesters were killed and wounded and BBC and ARD TV journalists were shot at not by Berkut or other law enforcement officers but by snipers in Hotel Ukraina and other Maidan locations and that this hotel and these locations were not controlled by the government forces but were Maidan “activists-controlled.” The verdict also confirmed that there were no Russian snipers involved in the massacre and that there were no massacre orders from Yanukovych or his ministers.

The verdict decision to convict in absentia the Berkut policemen, who were exchanged by Zelensky to Donbas separatists, for the murder of 35 protesters was politically motivated. It was based on a single forensic examination of bullets, which in 2019 reversed results of some 40 previous forensic examinations of bullets. This forensic examination also contradicted synchronized videos, forensic medical and ballistic examinations by government experts, and testimonies of the absolute majority of wounded Maidan protesters and several hundred witnesses. The Maidan massacre trial verdict along with the findings of the investigation by the Prosecutor General Office comprise a de facto official admission by the Ukrainian justice system that at least 10 of the 49 killed Maidan activists and 115 of the 172 wounded activists were shot on February 20, 2014, not by Berkut or other law enforcement members from government-controlled areas but by snipers from Maidan-controlled locations, in particular, Hotel Ukraina. Such de facto official admission that the absolute majority of Maidan protesters were wounded not by the government forces by from Maidan-controlled locations is another evidence that at least the absolute majority of the protesters were also killed by Maidan snipers since they were shot at the same time and place. Nobody has been convicted with real prison sentence for killing of 76 and wounding over 300 Maidan activists in Ukraine on February 18–20, 2014, more than 10 years after one of the most documented cases of political mass killing in history. Nobody is convicted for killing of all 17 and wounding about all 200 police and Internal Troops servicemen on February 18–20, 2014, on the Maidan and other locations in Ukraine.

This book also shows visually, based on synchronized videos, bullet hole locations in shields and helmets, wound locations and directions in forensic medical examinations, an on-site investigative experiment by government experts, and testimonies of eyewitnesses among Maidan protesters, that the SITU architecture model produced for the Maidan victims’ lawyers misrepresented locations of the wounds and directions of the gunshots that killed three protesters.

The evidence also suggests that there were armed Maidan shooters linked to the far-right and to the oligarchic Fatherland Party and that they killed and wounded both the police and the protesters on February 18 and 19, 2014. The Maidan leaders initiated the violent storming of the parliament on February 18. The first casualty was the computer technician in the Party of Regions office, who was killed during the arson of the building by Maidan activists, including the far-right. The Trade Union building on the Maidan was set on fire by the far-right activists during the attempt by the Security Service of Ukraine Alfa unit to storm this building. The evidence shows that such other major cases of violence during the Euromaidan, as killings of the first three protesters in January 2014, violent dispersal of the Maidan protesters on November 30, 2013, beating of a female Maidan activist, and kidnapping and crucifixion of another prominent activist were also staged in order to galvanize anti-government protests.

Consistent with the proposed moral hazard theory of state repression backfire, this false-flag mass killing on February 18–20, 2014, produced public backlash against the incumbent Yanukovych government and its forces, which were immediately blamed by the Maidan opposition, Western governments, a part of the ruling party, and Ukrainian and Western media for ordering and perpetrating this massacre. The condition reported by Maidan leaders, including the far-right Svoboda Party leaders, from a Western government representative before the massacre that the Western governments would turn on the Yanukovych government after casualties among protesters would reach 100, created rational incentives to the Maidan leaders to “sacrifice” 100 Maidan protesters and attribute their killing to the government forces. The killed protesters were called Heavenly Hundred immediately after the massacre, and protesters who died from illnesses and people who were not on the Maidan were included to bring the number of victims to 100.

Such information on Western involvement and the de facto backing of the violent undemocratic overthrow of the Ukrainian government by means of the Maidan massacre and the misrepresentation of this massacre by the Western governments, despite the evidence, including in the phone call between the Estonian foreign minister and the EU foreign affairs chief, that this mass killing was perpetrated with the involvement of the elements of the oligarchic and far-right Maidan opposition, requires further research and analysis of evidence which is not made public by these governments. But this and the overwhelming publicly available evidence concerning involvement of the oligarchic and far-right elements of the Maidan leadership and Maidan snipers suggests that the US and other Western governments at least knew about the actual perpetrators of this false-flag massacre.

The denial of the false-flag Maidan massacre in spite of such overwhelming evidence is politically motivated. The book shows that the Maidan massacre narrative that was propagated by the governments and the mainstream media in the West and Ukraine, as well as Wikipedia was false. They called the Maidan a peaceful protest and presented the massacre of the Maidan protesters as perpetrated by the government snipers on the orders of Yanukovych and his government. The prosecution, Maidan victims’ lawyers, and the mainstream media with some notable exceptions denied presence of snipers in Hotel Ukraina and other Maidan-controlled buildings, their shooting of the Maidan protesters, and the far-right involvement in this mass killing and claimed that this was “a conspiracy theory” and “propaganda.” Similarly, the Russian government claims that this was a fascist or Nazi coup are also false.

This false-flag killing of the protesters and police, along with several assassination attempts that followed, led to Yanukovych fleeing Kyiv and then Ukraine and to the violent overthrow of the Ukrainian government. The false-flag massacre was a key part of the violent undemocratic overthrow of the government in Ukraine and a major human rights violation and crime.

The massacre of Maidan protesters and the police was a trigger or a tipping point in the conflict that spiraled into other major conflicts in Ukraine and conflicts between Ukraine and Russia and between the West and Russia, in particular, the Russian annexation of Crimea, the war in Donbas, the illegal and devastating Russian invasion and the war with Ukraine, which also became a dangerous proxy war between the West and Russia. The Maidan massacre does not justify the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine. Conversely, the Russian invasion does not justify the Maidan massacre of the police and the protesters.

Therefore, the Maidan massacre and the failure to ensure justice ultimately have significant indirect global consequences, which can further increase in unlikely but not excluded case of a direct war between NATO and Russia with a danger of a nuclear war over Ukraine. The different narratives of the Maidan massacre and regime change in Ukraine have complicated peaceful resolutions of the conflicts in Crimea and Donbas and Russia-Ukraine and the West-Russia conflicts, which escalated, respectively, to the largest war in Europe since World War II and a proxy war between largest nuclear powers. Bringing the actual perpetrators and organizers of the Maidan massacre in Ukraine to justice can help resolving these dangerous conflicts.