Speculation runs rampant as authorities fail to solve caseDNIPROPETROVSK, Ukraine – On the eve of Euro 2012 football championship, Ukraine suffered several strange explosions – one after the other, in concrete trash bins. The debris injured 31 people in the eastern industrial city of Dnipropetrovsk, raising questions about the ability of government to keep people safe. More than two weeks after the April 27 blasts, eight people remained hospitalized.
As for who is responsible, more questions than answers remain.
The day started as a normal working one in Dnipropetrovsk, one of Ukraine’s largest cities, with more than 1 million residents. The calm ended at 11:40 a.m., when a concrete waste bin near a central tram stop blew up, damaging the station and breaking the windows of a tram full of passengers about to leave.
Three trash-can blasts followed – all in the center of the city, all within 90 minutes of the first. The city plunged into chaos for much of that afternoon, with Internet and mobile phone service interrupted. According to police, the four timing-controlled explosives amounted to 880 grams of TNT.
President Viktor Yanukovych reacted swiftly to the blasts, saying there will be “an adequate answer” to them. He arrived in the city next day and visited victims in the hospital, saying “So, you’ve got into hot water, didn’t you?” Yanukovych also gave security services a one-week deadline to investigate the case and find the guilty, a date that came and went without any reported progress.
The unsolved crime has triggered lots of speculation, including these scenarios, none of which is confirmed through evidence:
Terrorists
This is the official version – that the blasts were an organized act of terrorism. Two days after the blasts, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) published three descriptions of the suspected terrorists. However, no arrests have been reported. Also, no one has claimed responsibility or made demands. What may have motivated terrorists remains unclear.
Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka said blasts could be related to a similar explosion on Nov. 16 in Dnipropetrovsk, which killed one person and was not solved.
“This doesn’t look like a terrorist attack, but more like a criminal act stemming from an economic dispute,” said Oleksandr Skipalsky, a former SBU lieutenant general and ex-head of the military intelligence department of the Defense Ministry.
Government conspiracy
A version that spread quickly among Dnipropetrovsk residents and others is that the explosions were part of an attempt by special services in government to sow fear and terror for political reasons. Ukrainian authorities have steadfastly denied involvement, but speculation compared the Dnipropetrovsk blasts to the 2011 Minsk metro bombing, which many suspect was the work of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. The blasts happened as imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko accused prison guards of roughing her up and had the effect of blunting her story.
The first bomb went off seconds after people entered a tram, suggesting the explosive was meant to scare but not hurt anyone.
Doctor Vladimir Zakhmatov, burning physics and explosives specialist, disagrees with that version. “It was only by happy coincidence that no one was killed. I’m sure the blasts were meant to injure people, not just to scare them,” says Zakhmatov.
Zakhmatov also believes the fact that no arrests have been reported is a further indication that authorities are not behind the blasts. In the 2011 Minsk blasts, policed needed only two days to arrest those ultimately convicted.
However, the blasts appear to be the handiwork of qualified explosives specialists.
Opposition plot
The finger was pointed also at the political opposition. According to this theory, opponents of President Yanukovych want to destabilize Ukraine on the eve of Euro 2012 championship, when hundreds of thousands of tourists are expected. However, Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the four host cities.
Opposition leaders deny this scenario, pointing the finger instead at authorities.
Mob showdown
Two weeks before the blasts, Dnipropetrovsk was shocked by the assassination of businessman Hennadiy Akselrod, known for numerous construction projects and close ties with a local group that is alleged to improperly raid other businesses.
Akselrod was shot near his house in downtown Dnipropetrovsk on April 14. Soon after, Akselrod’s friend and partner, Hennadiy Korban, who together with Akselrod survived an assassination attempt two years ago, said he is “much harder to get to” as he drives around in armored cars and avoids public places.
Speculation is that the blasts are revenge from one side or the other. The murder also highlighted the presence of gangs in the city.
Witness tells rescue story
Inessa Shevchenko, a physician from Dnipropetrovsk, is on the spot of one of the April 27 explosions, with her hand covered in blood after she provided emergency medical aid to injured victims. (comments.ua)
Inessa Shevchenko, a physician from Dnipropetrovsk, was working downtown when the first bomb went off about 100 meters away. She ran to the scene and started providing emergency medical aid to the injured.
“At first there was a lot of misunderstanding. Nobody thought it could be an act of terrorism even after there was more than one explosion,” Shevchenko recounted. “At first, the policemen wouldn’t let me on the spot, but they did when I said I was a doctor. The head of the city health service was near me at the moment and he also was rendering aid as regular doctor, together with coordinating medics on phone.”
When the injured were taken away by ambulances, Shevchenko left, but soon heard another blast nearby. It was the third blast, and she helped a 63-year-old man who lost his arm. Even two weeks later, her voice still trembles hard when she talks about it.
“Everyone around was so much help. Men were taking off their belts so that we had something to use to staunch the blood flow, and tearing their shirts to make bandages. When I got to the first woman injured, I just pushed my bag into somebody’s hands and completely forgot about it. A lot later, when the spot was clean and all injured people were taken away, I saw a young man standing aside, holding my bag and waiting patiently. And I had money and some valuables inside, you know.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected].
