
Anti-government protesters clash with police in Kiev on Feb. 20, 2014. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images/File photo.
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Anti-government protesters clash with police in Kiev on Feb. 20, 2014. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images/File photo.
By Kit Klarenberg ¡ Sep 6, 2023
Once denounced by Zelensky as a âcriminal,â gun runner Serhiy Pashinksy has become the top private supplier of arms to Ukraine. Eyewitness testimony has fingered Pashinsky as the architect of a bloody false flag operation which propelled the 2014 Maidan coup and plunged the country into civil war.
Years before emerging as Kievâs top private weapons trafficker, ex-legislator Serhiy Pashinsky played a key role in the 2014 US-backed coup which toppled Ukraineâs democratically-elected president and set the stage for a devastating civil war. Though the notoriously corrupt former Ukrainian parliamentarian was condemned by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a âcriminalâ as recently as 2019, a lengthy exposĂŠÂ by the New York Times has now identified Pashinsky as the Ukrainian governmentâs âbiggest private arms supplier.â
Perhaps predictably, the report makes no mention of evidence implicating Pashinsky in the 2014 massacre of 70 anti-government protesters in Kievâs Maidan Square, an incident which pro-Western forces used to consummate their coup dâetat against then-President Viktor Yanukovych.
In an August 12 report on Ukraineâs new weapons-sourcing strategy, the New York Times alleged that âout of desperation,â Kiev had no option but to adopt increasingly amoral tactics. The shift, they say, has driven up prices of lethal imports at an exponential rate, âand added layer upon layer of profit-makingâ for the benefit of unscrupulous speculators like Pashinsky.
According to the Times, the strategy is simple: Pashinksy âbuys and sells grenades, artillery shells, and rockets through a trans-European network of middlemen,â then âsells them, then buys them again, and sells them once moreâ:
âWith each transaction, prices rise â as do the profits of Mr. Pashinskyâs associates â until the final buyer, Ukraineâs military, pays the most,â the Times explained, adding that while using multiple brokers may technically be legal, âit is a time-tested way to inflate profits.â
As the seemingly endless supply of cash from Western taxpayers provides a bonanza for arms manufacturers such as Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, it similarly benefits war profiteers like Pashinsky. His company, Ukrainian Armored Technology, âreported its best year ever last year, with sales totaling more than $350 millionâ â a whopping 12,500% increase from its $2.8 million in sales the year before the war.
Pashinsky is not the only racketeer benefiting from the elimination of anti-corruption measures in wartime Ukraine. Several suppliers previously placed on an official blacklist after they âripped off the militaryâ are now free to sell again, according to the Times investigation. The outlet downplayed this as an unfortunate, but ultimately necessary measure.
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âIn the name of rushing weapons to the front line, leaders have resurrected figures from Ukraineâs rough-and-tumble past and undone, at least temporarily, years of anticorruption [sic] policies,â the Times asserted, describing âthe re-emergence of figures like Mr. Pashinskyâ as âone reason the American and British governments are buying ammunition for Ukraine rather than simply handing over moneyâ:
âEuropean and American officials are loath to discuss Mr. Pashinsky, for fear of playing into Russiaâs narrative that Ukraineâs government is hopelessly corrupt and must be replaced.â
However, even the seemingly critical Times report overlooks a key aspect of Pashinskyâs unsavory biography. Conspicuously absent from the coverage was any explanation of his role in carrying out the infamous massacre of anti-government activists and police officers in Kievâs Maidan Square in late February 2014.
A defining moment in the US-orchestrated overthrow of Ukraineâs elected government, the death of 70 at the hands of mysterious snipers triggered an avalanche of international outrage that led directly to the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych. Even today, these killings officially remain unsolved.
However, firsthand testimony by individuals who claimed to have helped carry out the false flag attack suggest Kievâs most prolific gun runner was intimately involved in the grisly affair.
Maidan massacre organizer âtakes no prisonersâ
In November 2017, Italyâs Matrix TV channel published eyewitness accounts by three Georgians who say they were ordered to kill protesters by Mamuka Mamulashvili. Then the top-ranking military aide to Georgian president Mikhael Saakashvili, Mamulashvili later founded the infamous mercenary brigade known as the Georgian Legion, whose fighters were widely condemned after they published a gruesome video of themselves gleefully executing unarmed and bound Russian soldiers in April 2022.
The documentary, âUkraine: The Hidden Truth,â features an Italian journalistâs interviews with three Georgian fighters allegedly sent to orchestrate the coup. All described Pashinsky as a key organizer and executor of the Maidan massacre, even alleging the corrupt arms dealers provided weapons and selected specific targets. The film also featured footage of him personally evacuating a shooter from the Square, after they had been caught with a rifle and a scope by protesters and surrounded.
One of the Georgian fighters recalled how he and his two associates arrived in Kiev in January, âto arrange provocations to push the police to charge the crowd.â For almost a month, however, âthere were not many weapons around,â and âmolotov [cocktails], shields, and sticks were used to the maximum.â
This changed around mid-February, they said, when Mamualashvili personally visited them alongside a US soldier named Brian Christopher Boyenger, a former officer and sniper in the 101st Airborne Division, who personally gave them orders they âhad to follow.â
Pashinky then personally moved them along with sniper rifles and ammunition to buildings overlooking Maidan Square, they alleged. At that point, Mamualashvili reportedly insisted that âwe have to start shooting, so much, to sow some chaos.â
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So it was that the Georgian fighters âstarted shooting two or three shots at a timeâ into the crowd below, having been ordered to âshoot the Berkut, the police, and the demonstrators, no matter what.â Once the killing was over, Boyenger moved to the Donbas front to fight in the ranks of the Georgian Legion, which Mamulashvili commands to this day.
In the meantime, Ukrainian journalist Volodymyr Boiko, who headed the civic council of the Prosecutor General Office of Ukraine after Maidan, has alleged that in order to obscure his role, Pashinsky personally hand-picked the figures leading the official investigation into the massacre, and even bribed the prosecutor who headed it.
Despite these shocking claims, Pashinskyâs involvement in the Maidan massacre has never been officially investigated, let alone punished, and his most recent experiences with the Ukrainian judicial system suggest it is unlikely to be heavily scrutinized by officials in Kiev. While a member of Ukraineâs legislature Verkhovna Rada, he was arrested for shooting and wounding a pedestrian in a traffic-related dispute, but was ultimately acquitted in 2021.
When Israeli journalists confronted Pashinsky about his role in the Maidan massacre, the arms dealer warned that they would be tracked down in their home country, where his associates would âtear them apart.â They could be forgiven for believing it was not an idle threat; there is a troubling tendency for Pashinkyâs detractors to end up viciously beaten or shot dead in the street.
(The Grayzone)
BLA
Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.
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