Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk not only participated in the war in Chechnya, but was also involved in tortures and executions of Russian POWs, Alexander Bastrykin, the chairman of the Investigation Committee of Russia (ICR), said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta Russian newspaper, with a reference to the ICR. He said Yatsenyuk participated in at least two armed clashes in the Minutka Square in Grozny on Dec 31 1994 and near the Grozny Hospital No9 in Feb 1995. According to the ICR’s data, Arseniy Yatsenyuk among other activists of the Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian People’s Self Defense Organization (UNA-UNSO) was awarded with Dzhokhar Dudayev’s military decoration “Dignity of the Nation” for killing the Russian military. “Yatsenyuk’s fellows-in-arms describe him as an intelligent, clever, but at the same time cunning and tricky man, as it were, he was striving for power and popularity from young age,” Bastrykin said.
In addition, the Russian investigation has some questions concerning participation of also other representatives of the Ukrainian elite in the military actions in Chechnya. The list includes Dmitry Korchinsky, the head of UNA-UNSO, Dmitry Yarosh, deputy of the Supreme Rada, Valery Bobrovych, the commander of the punitive battalion “Argo,” Oleh Tyahnybok, deputy of the Supreme Rada and his brother Andrey Tyahnybok.
“All them are complicit in the crimes committed against the soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces and internal troops of the Russian Interior Ministry in the course of the counter-terrorist operation in the territory of the Chechen Republic in 1994-1995. These persons will be put on the international wanted list and arrested,” Alexander Bastyrkin said.
Kiev has not responded to these loud statements yet. According to official data, including open sources, Arseniy Yatsenyuk studied at the Yuri Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University in 1994-1995.
