The First Maidan Victims

Left to right: Serhiy Nihoyan, Yury Verbytsky, Mikhail Zhyznevsky, Roman Senyk  (Photo: Hromadske)

It is three years since Maidan activists Serhiy Nihoyan and Mikhail Zhyznevsky were killed on Hrushevsky St in Kyiv.  21-year-old Serhiy Nihoyan died first, killed by sniper bullets to the head and chest.  An hour later it was learned that 25-year-old Mikail Zhyznevsky had also been shot and killed. 

On that same most tragic Ukrainian Unity Day [День соборності] Roman Senyk received fatal injuries from which he died a few days later, and the body was found of Yury Verbytsky who had been abducted from hospital, tortured and beaten and left to die in the forest near Kyiv. 

None of those responsible for their deaths have been even identified, let alone brought to justice. 

Serhiy Nihoyan had served as one of the voluntary defenders of Maidan since December 2013.  He was a Ukrainian of Armenian origin, whose parents had come to Ukraine, fleeing the violence over Nagorno-Karabakh, shortly before their son was born.   He was his parents’ only son.

The video here ‘Our Shevchenko’ was first posted on Dec 22, 2013.  Serhiy is seen on Maidan and reading lines from Taras Shevchenko’s poem ‘The Caucuses’.

And glory, freedom’s knights, to you,  
Whom God will not forsake.
Keep fighting -- you are sure to win!
God helps you in your fight!
For fame and freedom march with you,  
And right is on your side. 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=CyFqqstK7e0

Mikhail Zhyznevsky was from Belarus, but had lived in Ukraine for 10 years, and was active in the Ukrainian nationalist movement. 

Roman Senyk was 45 and from the Lviv oblast. He died in hospital three days after being shot on Maidan.

Yury Verbytsky

 The 51-year-old Lviv seismologist was abducted from hospital during the early hours of Jan 21 by 10 men in plain clothes. His body was found in a forest outside Kyiv on Jan 23. He had been tortured, suffering horrific injuries, and left to die. Back in August 2014, the Interior Minister announced that it had concluded its investigation into the abduction of Yury Verbystsky and Euromaidan activist Ihor Lutsenko. It stated that the abduction had been organized by two men who acted with the full support of the former management of the Interior Ministry and Prosecutor General’s Office. They, and 10 other men, it said, had been placed on the international wanted list, yet for some reason it refused to reveal any names.

Please see the photos of all the Nebesna Sotnya [Heavenly Hundred, or those killed on Maidan here http://nebesnasotnya.com.ua/  

And join in remembering them here https://youtube.com/watch?v=zfiLYBUFCLs