Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov showing documents of an investigation during a news conference in Kiev, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

The Ukrainian authorities said yesterday ousted President Viktor Yanukovych was involved in drawing up plans under which police snipers shot dead dozens of anti-government protesters and hinted at a Russian role in the violent crackdown.

The head of Ukraine’s security service blamed the killing of more than 100 protesters in mid-February on the ‘Berkut’ riot police, a turning point in the Moscow-backed leader’s ultimately doomed struggle to keep power.

He also said representatives of Russia’s FSB security force had been seen at the Ukrainian security service’s headquarters during the protests that began in November and that a Russian plane had flown a large amount of explosives into Ukraine.

The hints of Russian involvement could further strain ties with Ukraine’s former Soviet master, which annexed the Crimea region after Yanukovych’s removal from power in what has become the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War.

“The former government of the country gave criminal orders and a huge number of people suffered in the ‘mincer’,” Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told a news conference in Kiev at which details of an inquiry into the killings were announced.

Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, head of the state security service (SBU), added: “It was intended as a counter-terrorism operation but effectively the mass murder of people happened directly under the leadership of former president Viktor Yanukovych. The new government has been under pressure to identify and punish the killers although Yanukovych has denied ordering the killings.

In the final bloody days of the protests, rooftop snipers picked off protesters and medical workers on February 20. Many died on the spot from shots to the neck and scores of bodies were left strewn on the ground in central Kiev.

One day after the killings, which followed three months of mainly peaceful protests over Yanukovych’s decision to spurn closer trade and political ties with the European Union, the president fled Kiev. He was deposed by Parliament on February 22.

Earlier yeterday, the prosecutor general said 12 members of the Berkut had been detained on suspicion of shooting peaceful participants in the protests.

Acting Attorney General Oleh Makhnitsky said the detainees were members of a special force in the Berkut called the ‘Black Unit’ and Nalyvaichenko said members of a special unit within SBU had also been involved.

In late February the Interior Ministry disbanded the Berkut, whose name means golden eagle.

Nalyvaichenko said the presence of members of Russia’s FSB, a successor of the KGB, at the SBU’s headquarters in Kiev implied there had been active Russian involvement in events in Ukraine.