Two Russian state-owned Sberbank branches in Kyiv were damaged from explosions after 1 a.m. on June 22. In both cases, the blasts smashed doors, windows and the signboards of the banks, according to a Kyiv police news release issued on the morning of June 22.
The detonations took place in the Darnytsia and Obolon
districts. Police opened criminal investigations into hooliganism while
reporting that no one was injured in the blasts.
The Ukrainian unit of Sberbank, majority-owned by the
Central Bank of Russia, is the nation’s fifth largest bank with Hr 59.8 billion
in assets, according to the National Bank of Ukraine.
Although the police didn’t name the banks affected by
the blasts, Dmytro Vitov, an activist of Narodniy Til, wrote on his Facebook
page that the explosion in Darnytsia happened near his house on Akhmatova
Street at a Sberbank branch. “The damage
is insignificant. It’s all about provocation! But I was scared! One of the explosions
happened a 100 meters from my house,” Vitov wrote.
Explosions at Sberbank branches have happened before.
In April, an unidentified device exploded near Borshchahivska Street. The next
morning police defused another explosion near the Sberbank branch on Peremohy
Avenue.
No one has been arrested in connection with the blasts.
