How it really happened: reconstruction of Euromaidan shootings

Digital reconstruction of Euromaidan shootings on February 20, 2014 on maidan.situplatform.com.

On June 7, the presentation of digital reconstruction of Euromaidan shootings on February 20, 2014, was held (maidan.situplatform.com). These unique research findings can be used as an important evidence of the deaths of people on that day.  

Further to the request of lawyers of families of the Heavenly Hundred, the SITU Research Studio and the Center for Human Rights Science of Carnegie Mellon University worked together to reconstruct the events and circumstances of the deaths of three Euromaidan protesters, Ihor Dmytriev, Andriy Dyhdalovych and Yuriy Paraschuk, in Kyiv on February 20, 2014.

“The International Renaissance Foundation supported this initiative and helped to involve world leading experts. We believe our priority is to put an end to impunity for murders of the Revolution of Dignity protesters. This platform is really unique due to the fact that the experts managed to reproduce the events of February 20, 2014, using the vast array of information”, – said Olexandr Sushko, Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation. 

The reconstruction and analysis are based on the data presented by lawyers of families of the Heavenly Hundred, which include almost 65 hours of video, 2D-plan of city of Kyiv, 3D spot cloud of places of events and results of pathoanatomical studies.

“From the very beginning of the case investigation, we understood that the available volume of video materials, in particular, 520 videos from the site with the total volume of 65 hours, had to be organized and classified so that we could establish the circumstances of the deaths of each of the protesters as well as the general situation of events that occurred that morning.We also wanted to establish possible places from which the shots were made that killed three protesters”, – said Pavlo Dykan, lawyer of the Heavenly Hundred. 

To reproduce the events, experts used the methods of sound printing of each video to synchronize them, as well as semi-automated method of video geolocation and the shot timing audio analysis.

As a result of these efforts, the platform maidan.situplatform.com was created, consisting of three parts:

  • The first part is the reconstruction of general events on February 20, 2014, along with a timeline of key events, including integrated video evidences so that viewers can review actual circumstances at a certain time.
  • The second part is a 3D model of situations of wounding of three Euromaidan protesters – Ihor Dmytriev, Andriy Dyhdalovych and Yuriy Paraschuk. Based on findings of the Ukrainian medical experts, experts established the points of incoming and outgoing injuries, the directions of the bullet shootings, the places from which the shots were likely performed, as well as the minimal and maximal distance from which the shots were made. The second part is a key part of the platform as it shows the main circumstances of the deaths of civilians and confirms the conclusions of the Ukrainian experts regarding the places from which the shots were made.
  • The third part contains markers of places of wounding of some of the deceased, markers of the points of video recording and time markers that provide viewers with an option to select videos corresponding to a certain time in the course of events.

From this point forward, lawyers of the Heavenly Hundred plan to file a law suit with the assize court of the Svyatoshyn District Court in Kyiv city along with a written report, including the description of methods used to create this platform and links to the platform itself, accompanied with the official translation into Ukrainian, to be used as an evidence in the case.

New York Times Magazine  and Oxford Academic already wrote about this platform. 

 

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