The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) authorities on July 17 detained Donetsk Deputy Mayor Kostiantyn Savynov and the head of the public relations department of the Donetsk mayor's office, Maksym Rovensky.
Savynov and Rovensky were arrested in the center of Donetsk city around 2 p.m., an Interfax reporter said.
They were guests of a roundtable entitled “For Unity, Harmony and Development” and organized by a group of Donetsk entrepreneurs and public activists. The event’s agenda was the requisitioning of property by the DPR militants.
On Thursday morning the so-called DPR Prosecutor General’s Office declared the roundtable to be illegal. “At a time of martial law, such actions are unacceptable, and the organizers of this event will be prosecuted under wartime laws,” the office said in a statement posted on the DPR website.
The roundtable went ahead at one of the city’s libraries, but was cut short by DPR supporters.
Witnesses said one of the organizers of the event, Volodymyr Shulha, had green-colored antiseptic, splashed over him. Savynov and Rovensky were arrested and were believed to be in custody in one of the buildings of the former regional branch of the Ukrainian Security Service.
“These persons will be in temporary detention until the circumstances of their participation in the illegal event have been found out,” a DPR Prosecutor General’s Office spokesperson told Interfax.
