You're reading: Shokin says searches of Kharkiv National Hotel unrelated to mayor Kernes

Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin has said that the searches of Kharkiv Hotel National were carried out as part of an investigation into the events which occurred on Maidan in autumn 2013-winter 2014.

At a press conference in Kyiv on Monday he said a former Berkut special task force officer, the defunct police unit involved in killing protestors during the Revolution of Dignity, lives in this hotel.

“This court being searched as a part of the criminal case over Maidan cases, in particular – over Berkut, who shelled people on Maidan. This case has no relation to Kernes. One of [the former] Berkut policemen lives there,” Shokin said when asked why the hotel was being searched,

As reported, according to a well-informed Interfax-Ukraine source, the search of the hotel was connected to former member of the Oplot organization Oleksandr Barbarian.

The agency’s interlocutor said that the search took place in Barbarian’s place of residence.