Ukrainian State Guard servicemen found an explosive device overnight on June 13-14 near the Presidential Administration in the downtown Kyiv.
State Security Service’s spokeswoman Maryna Ostapenko confirmed this information to the Kyiv Post. “The device is undergoing the expertise,” she said.
It was installed near the gate where presidential cars go in, reports Reuters news agency referring to own security sources.
“It was a container with five grenades and a kilogram of metal nuts,” said the Reuters’ source, who declined to be identified. “It was a really powerful device.”
Andriy Parubiy, Secretary of National Security and Defense, could not be reached by phone to provide a comment on the issue.
Tema, a Ukrainian news website, reported that the bomb was found on Luteranska Street, which is close to the Presidential Administration.
Around midnight on June 13 a woman who lives nearby told the presidential bodyguards that there are some unknown people in military uniform in her neighborhood on Luteranska. Officers followed her and saw a 30-year-old suspect who ran away down to Kreshchatyk as they tried to approach him. After investigating the place where he was running from, the bomb was found.
Moreover, border guards found a piece of paper on the fence nearby with a phrase “If you don’t stop the war – the war will come to you” written on it.
Meanwhile, President Petro Poroshenko’s official website has not published any information on the issue so far.
“The terrorists will get an adequate response,” said Poroshenko in a June 14 statement commenting the tragic event of pro-Russian terrorists shooting down Ukrainian transportation plane with military servicemen on board near Luhansk which led to 49 dead on the Ukrainian side.
“All those involved in the cynical terrorist act of such a magnitude, will inevitably be punished. Ukraine needs peace,” said the head of state.
President also ordered to set up a National Security and Defense Council meeting.
Oleksiy Haran, political science professor at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, sees the possible act of terrorism as a measure of psychological pressure on Ukrainian authorities. “Right now not only military escalation happens, but also a psychological war,” he says. “Maybe, this was not an attempt to assassinate the Ukrainian President, but to organize a demonstrative explosion as a part of psychological war.”
Separatists may move on from the terrorist activity in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts to different regions of Ukraine which are currently separatism-free, Haran adds.
Editor’s Note: The story has been updated to include a comment from Oleksiy Haran.
