You're reading: New details about suspects in Dnipropetrovsk bombing revealed (VIDEO)

After contacting police to demand $4.5 million, four people were arrested in the April 27 bombings in Dnipropetrovsk that injured 31 people. All are described as adult male residents of the eastern industrial city of 1 million people.

According to Security Service of Ukraine head Ihor Kalinin, the suspects were motivated by money and threatened more bombings if their ransom demands were not met. They contacted SBU via Internet and mobile phone messages, demanding $4.5 million to be transferred to certain bank account. They allegedly told the police that the sum amounted to “10 cents for every Ukrainian citizen.” Kalinin said that some money was transferred. Bank cards with money were thrown from train’s window in certain place on suspects’ demand. The suspects used Wi-Fi in local restaurants to avoid being detected.

“On May 29, we got a message with a threat to bomb playgrounds. After that, on May 30, the decision was made to arrest them,” said Kalinin.

Kalinin also explained that showing fake identities to the news media was one of the suspects’ demands satisfied.

Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko said investigators are confident they have the right suspects, citing evidence found in the suspects’ homes and computers. The suspects are believed to have found bomb-making instructions in Internet.

According to Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka, the investigation involved 38 house searches, interviews with 600 witnesses and other examinations. He says investigators will investigate whether the suspects have political motives.

Officials said the blasts were not meant to damage Ukraine’s image before the Euro 2012 football tournament, which starts on June 8.Kalinin quoted one of the messages that came from suspects, who said “we spent Hr 1,200 for the blasts, while the state spent Hr 1.5 million for compensation.”

The SBU also showed the video compiled of surveillance cameras records showing the suspect leaving a bomb package in a waste bin at a tram station where the first explosion took place, and another one showing suspects withdrawing money from bank machine after getting the cards from SBU.



Video released by SBU shows suspect delevering bomb package to the tram stop before the first explosion


Video released by SBU shows suspects trying to withdraw money after they get the bank cards they demanded

On June, 2 former deputy SBU head Hennadiy Moskal posted comments on the case at his official website. According to him, the names of three detained are Viktor Sukachev, Vitaliy Fedoryak and Lev Prosvirnin. This information was not confirmed by official sources.

According to Moskal, one of the suspects is a college political science professor. Investigators mentioned that “one of those detained is into science work.”

Viktor Sukachev, identified by Moskal as a suspect, is a professor of Dnipropetrovsk State University. Earlier this year he held a local press conference to give commentary on the Russian presidential election and the upcoming Oct. 28 parliament election in Ukraine. Anonymous students’ comments at local university website, posted a day before blasts, say he is "a bit strange, but brilliant" as a professor.

Moskal says he has doubts about detained being actually the ones in charge of blasts.

“It is my decision to make the names public so that journalists may start their own investigation of the case,” he said.

Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected]