On February 20, 2014, Yuri Ilyin, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, had ordered that a number of military units move armed and equipped groups to break up Maidan. This is the subject of encrypted messages signed by Ilyin and made available by Glavkom.

These messages were received by the commanders of the 25th separate airborne brigade (Dnipropetrovsk), the 79th separate airborne brigade (Mykolayiv), the 73rd marine center specialty (Ochakiv), and the 1st separate brigade of marines. The approximate number of military personnel that was to be included is 2,500.