Two held after blast rocks Ukrainian memorial rally
At least two die as bomb strikes event held to mark deaths of 100 protesters
TWO suspects the Ukraine government said had been armed and instructed in Russia have been arrested after at least two people were killed and eight others injured when a blast struck a crowd at a pro-Ukrainian rally far from eastern Ukraine’s war zone.
Ukrainian authorities fear violence could spread from two rebellious provinces to other areas in the mainly Russian-speaking east, a swathe of territory which the Kremlin calls “New Russia”.
The bomb in Kharkiv, the biggest city in the east, struck one of numerous events across Ukraine marking the deaths of 100 protesters a year ago in an uprising that toppled a Moscow-backed president.
“Today is memorial Sunday, but on this day terrorist scum revealed its predatory nature,” President Petro Poroshenko said on Facebook. “This is a bold attempt to expand the territory of terrorism.”
Amateur footage posted on the internet showed a few hundred marchers with Ukrainian flags shouting “glory to the heroes!” when the blast occurred. The demonstrators, including a woman pushing a baby in a pram, fled in panic. A wounded man in military uniform lay in snow crying for help.
A Reuters journalist at the scene filmed the bodies of two men lying by the road, draped in blue and yellow Ukrainian f lag s and surrounded by shrapnel.
Kharkiv is more than 200km (140 miles) from the war zone. It has occasionally seen violent protests by separatists in the past year, but is now firmly under government control, and residents mostly support Kiev.
A Ukrainian prosecutor said one of those killed and four of the wounded were police who had been guarding the demonstration.
Demonstrator Igor Rossokha told Reuters Television his friend Igor was one of those killed: “We tried to give him first aid, but the paramedics arrived and said he’d died instantly because he was struck in the heart.
“We just wanted to commemorate the anniversary, and this happened right at the start of our march,” he said. “The whole thing was called off immediately out of fear there could be more bombs on the route.”
Markian Lubkivskyi, an aide to the head of Ukraine’s SBU security service, said four suspects had been arrested. They were planning a series of attacks with a Russianmade “Shmel” rocket launcher.
“They are Ukrainian citizens, who underwent instruction and received weapons in the Russian Federation, in Belgorod,” he told Ukraine’s 112 Television. Belgorod is a city across the nearby Russian border from Kharkiv.
Moscow did not immediately respond to the accusations. It has long denied aiding its militant sympathisers in Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials initially said the blast was caused by an explosive thrown from a car, but later said a bomb had been buried under snow. The explosion follows blasts in other Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, although it appears to be the first in which fatalities were reported.
The violence comes as Ukraine continues to be riven by tension and bloodshed that has killed more than 5,600 people. stemming from Mr Yanukovych’s fall a year ago. A peace plan envisioning a ceasefire and pullback of heavy weapons was signed 10 days ago, but ceasefire violations continue.
Ukrainian military spokesman Colonel Andriy Lysenko told a briefing that the withdrawal was to begin but did not give further details.
Rebel spokesman Eduard Basurin said the pullback from both sides is to take place between yesterday and March 7, but he did not specify whether rebels had made any moves yet. There was no confirmation that the withdrawal had begun.