The West won’t lift its sanctions against Russia before Crimea returns to Ukraine, said U.S. Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland at the Berlin security conference. Nuland said partners should assist Ukraine and continue pressuring Russia.
Former President Viktor Yanukovych himself initiated the 10 antiprotest laws known as "dictator laws" for imposing restrictions on freedoms of speech and assembly that came into force on January 17, 2014, Ukraine's Prosecutor-General's Office said in a briefing.
"The immediate initiative and orders to adopt these laws came from the former president, who was informed of the suspicion," said the prosecutor-general’s head of special investigations, Serhiy Horbatyuk.
"Titushky," the paid thugs who provoked violence during Maidan, received 90,000 rounds of ammunition and 408 firearms from former law enforcement authorities on the orders of former Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko, according to Horbatyuk.
The former government "deliberately crossed all boundaries and were ready to use these weapons on a large scale," Horbatyuk added.