Halya Coynash: Was Luhansk SBU’s hostage story a hoax?
A reputable nongovernmental organization has just added weight to concerns regarding bafflingly contradictory stories about the seizure of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) building in Luhansk. The Luhansk regional branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine has stated that “it cannot exclude the possibility that the Luhansk SBU could be acting as a unit of Russia’s FSB [Federal Security Service]”.
The SBU claimed on Wednesday that it had negotiated the release of 56 hostages, but that the building was still held by pro-Russian separatists. The latter are denying all assertions that they have mined the building and that they took anybody hostage. There were reports at the outset that the separatists had broken into a store of arms and explosives, and so clearly the claims that the hostages could be used as human shields needed to be taken seriously.