MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/. The promises made at the "Maidan" coup in Kiev ten years ago have not been fulfilled while the hopes of its participants to swiftly join the European Union have not been realized, Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries, told TASS.

The expert pointed out that not only did Ukraine fail to achieve anything on its path to the EU chosen at the "Maidan" but it also sustained major losses. "Ukraine has not been and won’t be admitted to the EU, it has not been and won’t be admitted to NATO; the Ukrainian industry, one of the most robust ones in the post-Soviet space, ended up in ruins, and millions of those Ukrainians who had been the most active part of the population and could counteract the government, have left the country," Zharikhin explained.

Instead of ensuring the country’s economic and social development, the "Maidan" turned Ukraine into Washington’s tool in its standoff with Moscow. "America does not need Ukraine’s victory, it needs Russia’s defeat," he asserted. In his opinion, the US has turned Kiev’s aspiration for an EU membership into a consistent anti-Russian policy. "The Americans need Ukraine as the anti-Russia which would create threats to Moscow," Zharikhin stressed.

Having become the "anti-Russia," Ukraine, in his opinion, has ceased to be a sovereign state. Meanwhile, the Americans and Europeans have their own issues to deal with while Ukraine is gradually being moved to the sidelines of the international agenda.

On November 21, 2013, a week ahead of the anticipated signing of the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union at an Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, the then Ukrainian government announced "suspension of the process of preparations" for the signing of that agreement.

It provoked mass riots in central Kiev that ultimately resulted in a three-month standoff, commonly known as "Maidan," on Kiev’s central Independence Square, or Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Protesters seized a number of administrative buildings and set up the so-called armed ‘self-defense’ forces which plunged into open confrontation with law enforcement agencies. On February 20, 2014, as many as 53 people were killed by unidentified snipers in central Kiev. All in all, more than 100 people were victims to the standoff on February 18-20, and over a hundred were wounded. According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, more than a thousand policemen and servicemen of special assignment forces received wounds period of November 21, 2013, and February 20, 2014.

The Ukrainian prosecuting authorities have turned a blind eye to investigating these facts, however.

The regime that seized power in the aftermath pinned the blame for these crimes on Berkut riot police officers. In May 2015, a Kiev district court began considering the merits of the case against former Berkut officers who are charged with knowingly carrying out criminal orders to use weapons, abuse of power, illegal weapons handling as well as a terrorist attack. None of them have pled guilty to any of the charges.