Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has taken personal control of the situation concerning a boy who was reportedly taken hostage and later freed in Mukacheve district, Zakarpattia region, the president's press secretary Sviatoslav Tseholko has reported.
“The interior minister and the head of the Security Service of Ukraine(SBU) had reported to the president about the situation around the kidnapping of a 6-year-old boy in Zakarpattia region. The president took this emergency situation under his personal control and ordered to take all the steps to secure his release,” Tsegolko wrote on Facebook.
Meanwhile, SBU spokesperson Olena Hitlyanska, told Interfax-Ukraine that the boy had already been released and is now safe.
“The boy is now safe, the situation is under control,” she said.
Earlier, a source in the Interior Ministry told Interfax-Ukraine that law enforcement agents were searching for two members of Right Sector in Mukacheve district who kidnapped a 6-year-old child boy.
“In one of the villages of Mukacheve district, Zakarpattia region, two fighters of the Right Sector, armed with automatic weapons, in order to avoid pursuit by the a joint task force of the Interior Ministry and the Security Service, took a 6-year-old boy hostage, and using him as a shield fled into the woods,” the spokesman said, adding that the suspects later let the child go.
