Council of Europe: Kiev failed to probe protest violence

The Council of Europe on Tuesday blasted Kiev for failing to properly investigate deadly violence against demonstrators in last year's Maidan protests that ended with pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych's downfall.
The pan-European rights organisation said Ukrainian probes into the bloody crackdown that killed scores of people "failed to satisfy the requirements of the European Convention of Human Rights".
During the three months of demonstrations, "there was no genuine attempt to pursue investigations," the report said.
The council reviewed records detailing violence in Kiev's Independence Square, or Maidan -- the focal point of the pro-European protests -- from November 2013 to February 2014.
"In certain important respects, the investigations into the Maidan cases lacked practical independence in circumstances where the investigating body belonged to the same authority as those under investigation," the report said.
As a result, "substantial progress had not been made in the Maidan investigation", said the Strasbourg-based Council.
Rights groups have frequently accused Ukraine's current leaders of failing to bring to justice those responsible for the Maidan violence, in particular a three-day bloodbath in February.
Dozens of demonstrators who set up camp on the square also disappeared and are still missing.
The final days of the protests were mired in bloodshed and chaos as security forces gunned down scores of protesters in what was then the worst unrest in Ukraine since independence in 1991.
Only two low-ranking former riot police officers are facing trial over the killing of demonstrators.
Ukraine's interior ministry dismissed the report, calling accusations of obstruction "perplexing and unfounded".
It took particular issue with criticism over the handling of the three days of bloodshed ahead of Yanukovych's ouster.
"It was the interior ministry that made a list of all those who fired on demonstrators," said a ministry statement, claiming it was prosectors who decided not to arrest the suspects.
"The prosecution... allowed Berkut (riot police) suspects to flee to Crimea," it said.
Working for the pro-Russian former regime, members of the Berkut special police force are believed to have been directly involved in the three-day rout.
Shortly before the report's release, Ukraine's chief prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for two senior police officers accused of planning an attack against Maidan protesters just as the violence reached its peak.
"The former acting director of the Kiev police and his deputy... are believed to have organised an assault on the Maidan on the night of February 18 to 19, and to have given the order to perform the operation," said the prosecutor.