The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said that the use of weapons by the troops in Mariupol (Donetsk region) in the early hours of April 17 was lawful.
“The servicemen from the National Guard of Ukraine, who during an
attack on a military base in Mariupol used issued small-arms weapons,
acted lawfully, exercising their statutory rights,” the Prosecutor
General’s Office said in a statement, citing its main directorate for
oversight of compliance with the military laws.
The events at the military base in Mariupol have so far been
qualified in the single register of pre-trial investigations as
“terrorist attack” and “mass disturbances” under the Ukrainian Criminal
Code, the statement said.
“According to the latest reports, during the operation to repel the
takeover 16 attackers were injured, two of them died while being
attended to. Sixty-four attackers were held at the scene and are
currently being identified,” prosecutors said.
Neither the police, nor the troops were injured during the operation.
“The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office once again draws citizens’
attention that in their exercise of service duties the military have
the right to use measures of physical coercion and weapons as per the
military charters,” prosecutors said.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, about 300 gunmen with Molotov
cocktails tried to break through the Mariupol base parameter with the
aim to seize its arsenal of weapons. “In response to the attack, the
servicemen together with police officers conducted an operation to
contain and disarm the attackers,” the prosecutors’ statement said.
