From Maidan to Crimea and Kherson: former Special Forces officers found to be serving the enemy

Former members of the Kyiv Berkut, who took part in the shootings on Maidan in 2014, have integrated into the security forces or the Russian army after fleeing to Russia. Their footprints have been recorded in the occupied territories of southern Ukraine, particularly in the Kherson region.

Ukrayinska Pravda, together with its partners in the Book of Executioners project and fellow interns , tracked the fate of the Black Company, a special police unit whose members fled to Russia after the 2014 Maidan shootings.

The special police regiment first came to prominence on November 30, 2013, during the dispersal of student protests on the Maidan. These special forces, along with the internal troops, were used by the Yanukovych regime. The commander of Kyiv's Berkut, Dmytro Sadovnyk, selected 26 fighters and sent them to the center of Kyiv, creating the famous "Black Company" that shot protesters on February 20, killing 48 people.

On February 21, Sadovnyk, together with his commander Serhiy Kusiuk , began destroying evidence: weapons and documentation. Some of the police officers were taken to Kryvyi Rih and then to Crimea. On February 25, 2014, acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov disbanded Berkut.

In the following years, five members of the Black Company ended up in the dock: Pavlo Abroskin, Serhiy Zinchenko, Oleh Yanishevsky, Oleksandr Marynchenko and Serhiy Tamtura. Sadovnyk managed to escape in the fall of 2014. In 2019, Russia, threatening to disrupt the return of prisoners from the DPR and LPR, demanded that the special forces be transferred to the occupied territories.

The fate of those who fled to Russia was different: some "disappeared" in Russia, some started businesses, and some became part of the Kremlin's security forces. Most of them received Russian passports, which indicates support from the Russian authorities.

Some former Berkut members settled in Crimea. Pavel Abroskin, who was sentenced to 15 years in Ukraine, is registered in Sevastopol, where he worked in security structures until 2022. He deleted his VKontakte page but is active on Telegram and is interested in cold steel.

Dmytro Sadovnyk openly serves the occupation authorities - he is the deputy head of the Rosgvardia's unit coordination department, registered in Sevastopol, participates in propaganda activities, and enlisted his son in the Russian Unarmy.

Together with our partners, we also tracked down several former Black Company fighters who, after fleeing to Crimea, either integrated into Russian law enforcement agencies or joined the army. Their SIM cards were recorded in 2022 in the Kherson region, when Russian troops occupied southern Ukraine and tried to gain a foothold in the region.

Yevhen Taranukha, a former police officer, was granted Russian citizenship, was stationed in Crimea and Kherson, and integrated into the Berkut unit, which became part of the Russian riot police. His colleague Ivan Makarets also fled to Crimea, had several passports and was registered in the Kherson region during the occupation.

Yuriy Usenko, another special forces officer, received a Russian passport in 2014, lives in Crimea, and from 2020 to 2022 was engaged in a taxi service, his trips were recorded from Russia and Crimea to the occupied south of Ukraine, including Kherson.

The most interesting is Serhiy Devyatyi, a former engineer of special means of the Kyiv Berkut. He fled to Crimea in 2014, received a Russian passport, and became the commander of the intelligence unit in the 127th Separate Brigade of the Black Sea Fleet, which has been actively involved in hostilities in Kherson region since 2022. The ninth received a salary from the Black Sea Fleet at least since 2018, and his phone data in May 2022 was recorded in the Kherson region.

Thus, some of the former Berkut members actively integrated into Russian law enforcement agencies after escaping and participated in hostilities and propaganda activities in the temporarily occupied territories of southern Ukraine, in particular in Kherson region.

Last year, the Center for Public Investigations wrote that Ukraine had completed an investigation into the former commander of the SevastopolBerkut and three of his subordinates who were involved in the shootings of Maidan and later sided with the occupiers in Crimea. They are charged with serious crimes that could result in life imprisonment.

Анна Бальчінос