"As it was established by the investigation, a decision to disperse [a rally on] the Maidan with the use of force was taken by the former president in person. The then Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko and NSDC [National Security and Defense Council] Secretary Andriy Klyuyev were instructed to implement this plan. In turn, they ordered NSDC's Deputy Secretary Volodymyr Sivkovych, Kyiv police chief Valeriy Koriak and Chairman of Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Popov to organize and implement the operation. On behalf of the police, the dispersal was carried out by Berkut special riot police officers," Horbatiuk said.
In late November 2013, the Ukrainian government's decision not to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union became the root cause for mass protests, the largest in the modern history of the state. In particular, on November 21, 2013, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers made a decision to suspend preparations for signing the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, which was planned to be signed at the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit on November 28-29.
After the Berkut riot police violently broke up student protests on Kyiv's Independence Square, or Maidan Nezalezhnosti, on the night of November 30, 2013, hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets in Ukrainian cities to stage mass rallies.
