You're reading: Pshonka: Case on Dnipropetrovsk blasts solved, mercenary motives were found

Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Pshonka has announced that the criminal case on a series of blasts that hit Dnipropetrovsk in April has been solved.

"Today we can say that the crime has been solved, we have all of the information about the crime," he said at a press conference in Dnipropetrovsk on Friday.

Pshonka added that on Friday the management of law enforcement agencies arrived in Dnipropetrovsk to receive more details about the crime.

The investigation has established that the motive for the crimes was mercenary," Pshonka said.

Pshonka noted that investigators had been pursuing a line of inquiry, according to which the crime was committed for political reasons.

As reported, thirty-one people, including ten teenagers, were injured in four explosions that took place in Dnipropetrovsk on April 27. Of them, 26 were hospitalized.

The Security Service of Ukraine is investigating a criminal case opened by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine under Part 2 of Article 258 (terror act) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. All of the bombs were hidden in concrete waste bins.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko said that expert conclusions established that the blasts were caused by improvised explosive devices. The first explosive device contained the equivalent of some 160 grams of TNT, the second 190 grams, the third 230 grams, and the fourth 300 grams, he added.

One injured woman still remains hospitalized.

On June 1, Pshonka said that four people were arrested in connection with the April 27 explosions in Dnipropetrovsk.

"There is all the evidence that all four perpetrated this grave crime," Pshonka said at a meeting with President Viktor Yanukovych in Kyiv on Friday.

The prosecutor general confirmed that this criminal case is classed as terrorism.