Ukrainian Prosecutor Serhiy Kutsy has confirmed that former Berkut special forces officers accused of killing rally holders near Maidan (Independence Square in Kyiv) are on the exchange lists, the online edition of Hromadske.ua reports.

Prosecutors are asking to change the measure of restraint for former Berkut members, since they are on the exchange lists.

Kutsy during a court hearing read out a letter from the Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka in which he demands the release of the accused from pretrial detention centers.

Consideration of a complaint by the defense of ex-Berkut members Pavlo Abroskin, Serhiy Zinchenko, and Oleh Yanishevsky, accused of shooting protesting participants during the Revolution of Dignity on Instytutska Street on February 20, 2014 to extend his detention, has been ongoing for more than five hours at the Kyiv Court of Appeal.

As reported, on December 19, the preventative measure against former Berkut special forces officer in the same case, Oleksandr Marynchenko, was changed to round-the-clock house arrest from pretrial detention.

On July 16, 2019, the Sviatoshynsky District Court of Kyiv released under house arrest one more suspect in the murder of 48 protesters on Maidan, former Berkut member Serhiy Tamtur.

On February 16, 2016, the court combined the proceedings against five Berkut members Abroskin, Zinchenko, Marynchenko, Tamtura and Yanishevsky. All five are accused of killing 48 protesters during the Revolution of Dignity.

On December 23, Hromadske, citing its sources, said the Ukrainian side plans to transfer as part of the exchange of persons held by the ORDLO former Berkut members accused of shooting people in central Kyiv on February 20, 2014.