Former head of Ukrainian Armed Forces says Ukrainian authorities asked him to use the army against protesters on the Maidan in 2014
Former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Volodymyr Zamana testified as a witness in the high treason case against ex-President Viktor Yanukovych before the Obolonskyi District Court of Kyiv, Ukrainska Pravda reports.
During questioning, Zamana said that in February 2014, the Defense Ministry, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Prosecutor General's office tried to convince him to send the army to suppress the protesters on the Maidan.
"During that week, attempts were made to prepare the order to the use of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kyiv," Zamana said. According to him, Pavlo Lebedev, who then held the post of Defense Minister, made such efforts "to strengthen facilities and restore constitutional order in the capital."
The former Head of SBU, Oleksandr Yakymenko and former Head of the Prosecutor General’s Office Viktor Pshonka, whom Zamana met on 18 February 2014, tried to convince him that the legislation and intensified plan of anti-terrorist operation allowed the use of the Armed Forces to suppress mass protests.
However, the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stressed that none of them asked him to use weapons against the activists.