Maidan casualties

Altogether, 108 civilian protesters and 13 police officers were killed in Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity (or the 'Maidan Revolution'), which was the culmination of the Euromaidan protest movement. The deaths occurred in January and February 2014; most of them on 20 February, when police snipers fired on anti-government activists in Kyiv. The slain activists are known in Ukraine as the Heavenly Hundred or Heavenly Company (Небесна сотня, Nebesna sotnia). By June 2016, 55 people had been charged in relation to the deaths of protesters, including 29 former members of the Berkut special police force, ten titushky or loyalists of the former government, and ten former government officials.

On 21 February, the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) passed a law to provide assistance to the families of the protesters who were killed. On 21 November 2014 a decree by the new Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko posthumously awarded the title "Hero of Ukraine" to the slain protesters. Three non-Ukrainian citizens killed in the revolution were each posthumously awarded the title "Knight of the Order of the Heaven's Hundred Heroes". Since 2015, the deaths have been commemorated each year in Ukraine on 20 February, which is "the Day of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes".

History


The first deaths occurred on Unity Day, 22 January, during riots on Hrushevskoho Street in Kyiv, where three activists: Serhiy Nigoyan, Mykhailo Zhyznevskyi and Roman Senyk were shot dead by security forces. On the same day, the dead body of activist Yuriy Verbytsky was found on the city outskirts; he had been kidnapped a day before with Ihor Lutsenko, who was released. These were the first victims to die in demonstrations in Ukraine since it gained national independence in 1991. The deaths caused widespread protests. On 23 January, then Prime Minister Mykola Azarov in a BBC interview said that police had not been issued firearms, and said no police officers were located on the rooftops around the protest area. He stated that the shooting of protesters was a provocation by extremist forces aimed at escalating violence. Party of Regions MP Arsen Klinchayev stated during a memorial service in Luhansk for those killed on 22 January by police, "These people were against the government. Nobody has the right to use physical force against police officers. And then they have their sticks, then stones, then something else. The police have the right to defend their lives. So I think it's right that these four people were killed. Moreover, I believe that you need to be stricter."

On 18 February, protesters attempted to march from Independence Square to the parliament building, to urge politicians to vote for constitutional amendments. Clashes broke out as their path was blocked by riot police, who tried to push them back to Maidan. Eleven protesters were killed or fatally wounded. Three of them were shot dead by police; the rest died of other injuries. Four police officers were also shot and killed.

Later that evening and into the early hours of 19 February, the security forces launched an operation to clear Independence Square. Small groups of titushky (government loyalists) also gathered nearby. Clashes broke out between the security forces and protesters, resulting in the deaths of seventeen protesters and five police officers. Most of the protesters were shot by police. Two others died when police set the Trade Union building on fire, and another was found dead with his throat slit. A journalist, Viacheslav Veremii, was beaten and shot dead by titushky for filming them. The five police officers died from gunshot wounds.

On the morning of 20 February, riot police massed at the edge of the Maidan camp on Independence Square. At around 9am, two Berkut officers were shot dead. Around the same time, protesters tried to push the security forces away from the Maidan and back up Instytutska Street. The security forces fired indiscriminately on the protesters from ground level, while snipers fired on protesters from above. By midday, 48 protesters had been shot dead on Instytutska Street, as had two other police officers. According to the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, special forces (Berkut) and Interior Troops snipers shot at people on Maidan and/or snipers located in nearby buildings, with the special forces firing AK-47 assault rifles. 20 February was the bloodiest day of the clashes, with at least 21 protesters killed.

The final death toll from these clashes in late February was 103 protesters and 13 police. According to Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Oleh Zalisko in February, 184 people sustained gunshot wounds in Kyiv and over 750 suffered bodily injury. On 20 February, the (then) opposition parties (Batkivshchyna, UDAR and Svoboda) stated "To hold talks with the regime, the policies of which led to the deaths of many people, is an extremely unpleasant thing but we must do everything possible and even the impossible to prevent further bloodshed".

On 21 February, the Maidan held a memorial for the slain protesters who they named the Heavenly Hundred. During the event, a mourning Lemko song "A duck floats on the Tysa..." was heard («Плине кача по Тисині…»).

On 24 February, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) decided to propose that the next Ukrainian president award the title Hero of Ukraine to protesters killed in the clashes.

Identity of 20 February snipers
In June 2016, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine announced that forensic examinations had matched bullets removed from the victims' bodies with the assault rifles of the Berkut. In the years since the revolution, the Office of the Prosecutor General has identified 27 Berkut officers involved in the 20 February shootings of protesters. However, in most cases, investigators have been unable to identify which Berkut officer shot specific protesters.

In the immediate aftermath of the revolution, the new government's health minister, Oleh Musiy—a doctor who helped oversee medical treatment for casualties during the protests—told the Associated Press that the similarity of the bullet wounds suffered by both protesters and police suggested the shooters were trying to stoke tensions on both sides and spark greater violence, with the goal of justifying a Russian invasion. "I think it wasn't just a part of the old regime that (plotted the provocation), but it was also the work of Russian special forces who served and maintained the ideology of the (old) regime," he said, citing forensic evidence. Hennadiy Moskal, former deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine and Ministry of Internal Affairs, suggested that snipers from the Security Service and Militsiya were responsible, who acted on contingency plans dating back to Soviet times: "Snipers received orders to shoot not only protesters, but also police forces. This was all done to escalate the conflict, to justify the police operation to clear Maidan". The new Interior Minister, Arsen Avakov, said in March 2014 that the shootings were provoked by a 'non-Ukrainian' third party, and that an investigation was ongoing.

Russian state media reported in March 2014 a leaked telephone call in which Estonia's foreign minister, Urmas Paet, allegedly accused the opposition of shooting both police and protesters. Paet acknowledged the phone call was authentic, but denied blaming the opposition and said he was merely relaying rumors he had heard from a doctor. A spokesperson for the US state department said the leak was "Russian tradecraft". The doctor, Olga Bogomolets, said she had not told Paet that policemen and protesters had been killed in the same way, that she did not blame the opposition for the killings, and said the government told her an investigation had begun.

In April 2014, Ukraine's new interior minister, Avakov, presented the findings of the initial investigation into the shootings. It found the Berkut responsible for shooting the protesters, and identified twelve of the officers involved. It also identified some of the firing positions. Avakov said the previous regime had tried to hinder any inquiry by destroying weapons, uniforms and documents. The investigation also found that more than 30 Russian Federal Security Bureau (FSB) agents were involved in the crackdown on protesters. Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, the interim head of Ukraine's Security Service, said the FSB agents had flown large quantities of explosives into an airport near Kyiv, that they were based at a compound in Kyiv throughout the Maidan protests, were provided with "state telecommunications", and were in regular contact with Yanukovych's security officials. He said that Yanukovych's SBU chief Oleksandr Yakymenko, who had fled the country, held several briefings with the agents. Russia's FSB rejected this as "groundless accusations".

On 31 March 2014, The Daily Beast published photos and videos which appear to show that some of the snipers were members of the Ukrainian Security Service's "Alfa" group, who had been trained in Russia.

In 2015, BBC published a story based on an interview with an unnamed man, who said he fired at riot police from the Kyiv Conservatory (music academy) on the morning of 20 February. The sniper said he was recruited by "a retired military officer". These morning shots are said to have provoked return fire from police snipers that resulted in many deaths. One Maidan leader, Andriy Shevchenko, said police commanders called him to say they were being shot from areas controlled by protesters. Another Maidan leader, Andriy Parubiy, said his team searched the Conservatory but found no snipers. He confirmed that many victims on both sides were shot by snipers, but they were shooting from other, taller buildings surrounding the Conservatory and was convinced they were snipers controlled by Russia. In 2016, Maidan protester Ivan Bubenchik admitted having fired on the security forces from the Conservatory on 20 February, killing two Berkut commanders. He said he acted in response to the Berkut shooting at protesters.

Arrests and prosecutions
On 2 April 2014, law enforcement authorities announced they had detained nine officers of the Kyiv City Berkut unit as suspects in the shootings, and verified the Alfa Group's involvement. Officials also said they planned further arrests, but had been hindered because the Yanukovych regime destroyed documents and evidence. The Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed that Yanukovych gave the order to fire on protesters on 20 February.

Many of the identified alleged perpetrators fled to Russia after the revolution. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the Russian Federation granted citizenship to 18 police officers suspected of killing protesters, and has refused to extradite them to Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in 2020 that prosecutions were difficult because "evidence and documents have been lost, while the scene of the crime has been tampered with and 'cleaned up'". He could not say when those who gave the orders would be found, but gave assurances that the matter is being "dealt with faster than several years ago". Later in 2020, an investigation by the Ukrainian Bureau of Investigations concluded that the assault on the Maidan protesters was ordered by Yanukovych and his subordinates.

In 2023, a Ukrainian court convicted three former Berkut police officers in absentia for their part in the killings. The three were in hiding in Russia. Oleh Yanishevsky, a deputy commander of a Berkut regiment, received life imprisonment for murder, while the two others were sentenced to 15 years each for murder. The court ruled that at least 40 of the 48 protesters were killed by the Berkut. In the remaining eight cases, the perpetrators could not be determined due to lack of evidence. According to the Kyiv Independent:"'In many cases, it was impossible to identify which Berkut officer shot specific protesters because they wore face masks or their images in photographs and video footage were of poor quality. ... the court effectively considered the officers' actions individually rather than collectively, thus dropping murder charges where it was impossible to prove which officer killed which protester'."

Unnamed dead activists
Unidentified activists were reported killed. <!---SOURCES FROM MAIN ARTICLE: MIGRATE THIS INTO THE LIST:* Yuriy Verbytsky (50 years old), a seismologist fromLviv, who along with Ihor Lutsenko was kidnapped from Oleksandrivska Clinic in Kiev. Initially two bodies were claimed to have been found in the area of Boryspil Raion, Kiev with marks of torture, but police later stated it was only one. The Ministry of Internal Affairs denies the fact the kidnapping took place. According to Ihor Lutsenko, police had been known for abducting dissidents from hospitals, where people are then taken outside the city limits, tortured, beaten, and then returned to the police district precinct. On 21 January, in an interview Lutsenko stated that Verbytsky was tortured with greater malice only because he was from Lviv, and that he believed the men to be from eastern Ukraine. Police stated that the official cause of Verbytsky's death was hypothermia, and that his injuries "were not connected with his death."
 * During the Hrushevskoho Street riots, a 22‑year-old man died falling from the colonnade near the Lobanovsky Dynamo Stadium during a beating by police; the cause of death was multiple injuries, particularly spinal fracture.
 * Two unnamed shooting victims were announced on the evening of 22 February. Their bodies disappeared from the street after the action of Berkut in the early morning 22 January. Roman Senyk was later identified as shot and killed on this date.
 * On 26 January, the body of a man was found in Obolon district, with his hands bound.
 * On 29 January, two male activists were shot on Hrushevskoho Street and brought to a Kyiv hospital. One died from gunshot wounds the following day. A UDAR MP accused police of shooting the two as a provocation.
 * On 15 February, the body of a missing activist was found outside of Kyiv.
 * On 18–19 February, 16 protesters were killed in clashes, of whom 7 have been named.
 * On 19 February at 9pm a young man was killed in Khmelnytsky outside the SBU building. 5Kanal reported both a 23‑year-old and a 16‑year-old were shot and killed.
 * On 20 February, at least 34 protesters were shot dead as of 1pm, with reporters verifying the bodies (15 at Kozatsky Hotel, 12 at Ukraine Hotel, 7 at the central post office). Kyiv Post journalists reported an additional eight bodies on Khreshchatyk Street early afternoon, separate from the previous count. Olha Bohomolets, one of the attending physicians to 12 fatal gunshot victims at Ukraine Hotel, said that the victims were shot with precision rifles and powerful ammunition that broke their bones.
 * Mikhail "Loki" Zhyznevskyi, a Belarusian citizen, who was shot dead by police on 22 January. Zhyznevskyi was shot in the chest near his heart by a sniper. It was confirmed that Zhyznevskyi was fromHomiel and lived in Bila Tserkva, and was a member of the UNA-UNSO.
 * Two more shooting victims were announced by Euromaidan medical service coordinators by the evening of the 22nd. The identity of those two remains unknown as their bodies disappeared from street after the assault of Berkut in the early morning 22 January 2014. Roman Senyk, a 45 year-old man from Yavoriv (who lived in Turka) died on 25 January from gunshot wounds to the chest he received in the Hrushevskoho Street riots on 22 January.
 * On 26 January, the body of a man was found in the Obolon district of Kiev, with his hands bound.
 * On 28 January, Bohdan Kalyniak died of pneumonia suffered from clashes on Hrushevskoho Street where police used water cannons on protesters despite sub-zero temperatures.
 * On 29 January, two male activists, one younger and one older, were shot on Hrushevskoho Street and brought to a Kiev hospital. The latter died from the gunshot wounds the following day. A UDAR MP accused police of shooting the two as a provocation. --->

Other deaths
On 18 February militants from the Social-National Assembly and the Patriots of Ukraine seized and burned down the central office of the ruling Party of Regions. A 57-year-old IT engineer Vladimir Konstantinovich Zakharov died in the fire. According to Party of Regions' statement, Zakharov proposed to the attackers to provide an exit route for the women office workers and was mortally struck in the head with a bat. According to the Ukrainian news site Censor.net, Zakharov died of carbon monoxide poisoning while taking money from the office safe. On 10 April 2020 Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigations handed a murder suspicion notice to a former People's Deputy of Ukraine Tetiana Chornovol. Chornovol is accused of "controlling actions of a group of people and directly participating in the arson" of the Party of Regions office building.

Police officers' deaths
As of 2 March, The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported 18 officer fatalities related to the conflict. Two deaths that occurred during the crisis were considered by The Interior Ministry's as having no relation to Euromaidan or civil unrest. In addition, according to the Minister of Internal Affairs, another police officer, 30-year-old captain of the Internal Troops of Ukraine Dmytro Donets, died from a heart attack. On 18 February, six officers were killed in action against protest camps in Kyiv.

Legacy
Ukrainian sources refer to the activists who died during Euromaidan as "The Heavenly Hundred". In April 2014, the Kyiv City State Administration and Culture Ministry of Ukraine stated that they expected to open a memorial complex "to the heroes of Heavenly Hundred" in February 2015, on the occasion of the anniversary of the death activists.

On 1 July 2014, the Verkhovna Rada (the parliament of Ukraine) established the Medal "Order of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes".

On 25 August 2014, President Petro Poroshenko claimed he had called the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election in order to purify parliament of MPs who had supported "the [January] Dictatorship laws that took the lives of the Heavenly hundred".

Kyiv City Council renamed a part of Instytutska Street into Heavenly Hundred Heroes Avenue on 20 November 2014.

President Poroshenko decreed on 11 February 2015 that 20 February will annually be commemorated as "Day of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes". His decree established [an action plan to accomplish] a museum in Kyiv dedicated to Euromaidan. On 20 February, it is compulsory for Ukrainian TV channels to display a flaming candle or a similar stylized image, and, at 12:00, a minute of silence must be observed.

Monuments

 * On 23 February in Poltava, a statue of Lenin taken down two days previously had its pedestal converted into a "monument to the Maidan Heroes".
 * On 13 April 2014 in Buda, Chyhyryn Raion (the historical Cold Ravine), a monument to "the Heavenly Hundred" was installed.
 * On 6 May 2014 in Dubno, a commemorative landmark to "the Heavenly Hundred" was unveiled.
 * On 21 September 2015 outside of Chicago in Bloomingdale, Illinois, a monument commemorating the people perished during the Euromaidan was erected.