Eyewitness: 'Zhyzneuski was killed by Ukrainian riot police'


The bullet killed Belarusian-born Mikhail Zhyzneuski during anti-government protests in Kyiv flew from riot police, activist Taras Kabyalka said in an interview aired by a Ukrainian TV channel on February 2. According to him, Mr Zhyzneuski was killed while shielding a group of protesters from bullets fired by police.

“Mikhail was standing between two buses, closing the gap [with a wooden board], so that [police] could not fire from there,” he said. Then Zhyzneuski fell to the ground shortly after several shots were fired and explosions were heard. “There was a big hole in the board,” Taras Kabyalka said.

Guns from which Ukrainian riot police fired rubber bullets at protesters during the clashes in January could also be used to fire the bullet that killed Mr Zhyzneuski, said experts.

Mikhail “Loki” Zhyzneuski, who would have had his 26th birthday on January 26, left Belarus in 2005 and lived in the city of Bila Tserkva near Kyiv. He was killed on the morning of January 22 in Hrushevskoho Street. Ukrainian authorities have claimed that neither police nor state security forces could be involved in Mr Zhyzneuski’s death.

www.belsat.eu/en, following BelaPAN

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