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Those who were in Ukraine during the 2013–2014 EuroMaidan Revolution will remember how deeply shocking the murders of dozens of anti-government protesters were. It felt like a crime so atrocious and brazen that it couldn’t possibly go unpunished.
But as years go by, our hope for justice is growing thin.
Six years after the revolution, only two hired thugs are in jail for crimes committed during the 100-day uprising that ousted ex-President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014. None of the suspected organizers of the massacre of 78 protesters are even on trial.
Then, on Dec. 28, a court delivered a blow to the future of the EuroMaidan investigations. It released the only five police officers on trial for murdering protesters. Their release was part of a prisoner exchange with Russia and its proxies in the Donbas.
The argument used in favor of the move was that Ukraine got its prisoners of war back. Yes, it did. But it also lost something very important that is in short supply in Ukraine — justice — by giving back criminal suspects who were not prisoners of war. Russia’s demand for these prisoners is further proof of the Kremlin’s involvement in the EuroMaidan crimes.
Under presidents Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky, the EuroMaidan cases have been sacrificed for political expediency.
Apart from the prisoner exchange, the reasons for their collapse could have been manifold: reluctance to antagonize Russia, top Ukrainian officials’ relationships with former representatives of Yanukovych’s regime and outright bribery.
Bringing EuroMaidan cases to a conclusion would require abandoning the habitual political interference in law enforcement that made the EuroMaidan crimes possible in the first place. But Ukrainian authorities don’t want to stop such interference.
A successful resolution to the EuroMaidan cases would have moved the nation further toward rule of law and an end to impunity. Instead, the release to Russia’s proxies of five suspects represents a major setback.
Now, the Kremlin’s possible interference in Ukraine during the revolution is likely to go unexplored and certainly unpunished.
Ukraine will, meanwhile, continue to pay a heavy price for its failure to convict those responsible for the EuroMaidan murders. Crimes that are not punished will be repeated.
