Investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg expounded on this issue in a Sept. 6 article published on the Grayzone website. Back in February 2014, 70 individuals were gunned down by mysterious snipers at Kyiv's Maidan Square. The killings of the anti-government activists and police officers, which were reportedly orchestrated by the U.S., led to a coup d'etat that deposed then-President Viktor Yanukovych.
But more than three years later in November 2017, Italy's Matrix TV aired a documentary by an Italian journalist titled "Ukraine: The Hidden Truth." The documentary featured the journalist's interviews with three Georgians, who claimed that the order to kill protesters came from Mamuka Mamulashvili, then the top-ranking military aide to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. The military aide later established the Georgian Legion, which is currently involved in the Russia-Ukraine war.
The three Georgians described Pashynskyi as a key organizer and executor of the Maidan massacre, even alleging that he provided weapons and selected specific targets. The documentary also featured footage of him personally evacuating a shooter from the square, after they had been caught with a rifle and a scope by protesters and surrounded.
One of the interviewees recounted how he and his two associates arrived at the Ukrainian capital in January 2014, with a view to goading police officers to attack the demonstrators. But things changed in mid-February when Mamulashvili and former U.S. soldier Brian Christopher Boyenger visited them and gave them orders to follow.
Pashynskyi then personally moved them, along with sniper rifles and ammunition, to buildings overlooking Maidan Square. Mamulashvili ordered the Georgians to "shoot the Berkut [riot police], the police and the demonstrators no matter what," adding: "We have to start shooting, so much, to sow some chaos." The three Georgians followed the order to a T, "shooting two or three shots at a time" into the crowd below. (Related: Documentary: The truth about Ukraine's 2014 Maidan uprising to install a US-backed regime.)
Mamulashvili later established the Georgian Legion and moved to the Donbas region of Ukraine. Boyenger, a former member of the 101st Airborne Division, also followed suit and fought in the ranks of the legion.
Meanwhile, Pashynskyi rose through the ranks of the Ukrainian government – holding positions in the country's National Security and Defense Council and the Office of the President. The former member of the Verkhovna Rada – Ukraine's unicameral parliament – had been previously condemned by current President Volodymyr Zelensky as a "criminal" as recently as 2019.
But an Aug. 12 report by the New York Times (NYT), which Klarenberg cited, revealed that Pashynskyi is Kyiv's "biggest arms supplier." It pointed out that "out of desperation," Ukraine had to adopt increasingly amoral tactics with its weapons procurement.
The shift, NYT added, has driven up prices of weapons at an exponential rate. It has also "added layer upon layer of profit-making" for the benefit of unscrupulous speculators like Pashynskyi. The weapons supplier's strategy involved buying and selling "grenades, artillery shells and rockets through a trans-European network of middlemen" in a repeated cycle.
"With each transaction, prices rise – as do the profits of Pashynskyi's associates – until the final buyer, Ukraine’s military, pays the most," the NYT explained. While using multiple brokers may technically be legal, "it is a time-tested way to inflate profits."
True enough, this translated to profits for Pashynskyi's Ukrainian Armored Technology (UAT). According to NYT, UAT "reported its best year ever" in 2022 "with sales totaling more than $350 million." This amounted to a massive 12,500 percent increase from its $2.8 million in sales for 2021.
"In the name of rushing weapons to the front line, leaders have resurrected figures from Ukraine's rough-and-tumble past and undone, at least temporarily, years of anti-corruption [sic] policies," the NYT noted.
"The re-emergence of figures like Pashynskyi [is] one reason the American and British governments are buying ammunition for Ukraine rather than simply handing over money. European and American officials are loath to discuss Pashynskyi, for fear of playing into Russia's narrative that Ukraine's government is hopelessly corrupt and must be replaced."
Watch this video about the Maidan massacre snipers Pashynskyi assisted and provided with weaponry.
This video is from the OP News channel on Brighteon.com.
Europol fears that weapons sent to Ukraine will end up in the hands of criminals.
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