Explosion in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Kills Three During Peace March

AFP PHOTO/ SERGEY BOBOK
AFP PHOTO/ SERGEY BOBOK
Mary Chastain

On the anniversary of the ousting of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, a bomb ripped through Kharkiv, Ukraine, killing at least three people.

The bombing occurred amid assemblies to celebrate the anniversary of Yanokovych’s ouster, who lost significant support as an ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. A bomb exploded in the middle of the crowd forming in Kharkiv. Witnesses told The Kyiv Post it appeared that “the explosive device was timed to explode after all the marchers arrived on the scene.” However, the march was delayed, and a truck ahead of the crowd “prevented the bomb taking significantly more casualties.” Demonstrator Dmitriy Komaykov described the event:

The march was delayed by 10 minutes, then just as people started to move, we saw the explosion go off just one hundred meters away, to our left and on the road side. It seemed like the device was hidden in the snow near a tree…

Luckily a truck was manoeuvring there, and it took most of the shrapnel. I saw two dead, lying in blood, just next to the truck, which was completely torn apart by metal shards. Can you imagine if it had been later? My wife and I went to the march with our baby daughter and our older son.

https://twitter.com/SHuijboom/status/569464581720047616

Ukrainian officials are treating the incident as an assassination attack. Security Service of Ukraine spokesman Markian Lubkivsky announced authorities arrested four people, and they planned more attacks inside Kharkiv.

“They are Ukrainian citizens who underwent instruction and received weapons in the Russian Federation, in Belgorod [town near the border],” he said.

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