Former employees of the Kharkov special forces Berkut Andrei Khandrikin and Vladimir Riyako, whose cases on charges of committing crimes against activists and journalists during the Revolution were sent to the court, were certified, the press service of the National Police in Kharkiv region.

"The said workers passed the re-certification on general grounds and, in accordance with the conclusions of the certification commissions, were appointed to the posts of policemen in the battalion of the special police, where they continue to serve," said Alexei Sviridov, senior specialist of the communications department of the National Police in the Kharkiv region.

Khandrikin is a figurant of the episode on January 20, 2014 on Grushevsky Street, when two participants of EuroMaidan were beaten at the colonnade at the entrance to Lobanovsky Stadium. "Berkutovtsy" withdrew activists from the colonnade, undressed, mocked, and then dressed in other clothes and taken to the district department.

Vladislav Mastega and Artem Voilokov, who are also accused in this case, left for Russia through the border checkpoint "Goptovka" in the Kharkov region.

Vladimir Riyako is the only defendant in the case of beating the journalists of Gromadsky Konstantin Reutsky and Anastasia Stanko in Pesochin, Kharkiv region, January 28, 2015. Two other defendants - Alexander Kostyuk and Vitaly Goncharenko, whose actions the prosecutor's office qualified as an impediment to journalistic activity, abuse of power and abuse of authority, are also in Russia.

In addition to the episode with journalists, Goncharenko is accused of killing three people on February 18 in the Fortress Lane in Kiev.