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Post by Admin on Aug 31, 2015 20:12:40 GMT
One national guard member has been killed and over 100 injured in violent protests outside Ukraine's parliament, the interior ministry said. Clashes between nationalists and riot police erupted after MPs gave initial backing to reforms for more autonomy in the rebel-held east. Some in the crowd lobbed what police said were live grenades at officers protecting parliament.  The Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, said the violence was "a stab in the back". Protesters led by the populist Radical Party and the ultra-nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party - who oppose any concession to the Russian-backed separatists - gathered outside parliament early on Monday. After a rowdy debate, 265 MPs out of 450 backed the first reading of the decentralisation bill, granting more powers to areas of Donetsk and Luhansk. Initially, there were only minor clashes but a BBC correspondent then heard small explosions followed by a much larger one - apparently from a grenade.  The Ukrainian Interior Minister, Arsen Avakov, said some 30 people have been detained, including a Svoboda member who confessed to throwing a grenade. Of the 122 people hospitalised, more than 11 were in a critical condition, the minister added. He bitterly criticised Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok, writing on Facebook that several explosive devices had been thrown by people wearing Svoboda T-shirts. |
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Post by Admin on Oct 14, 2015 19:44:54 GMT
Ukrainian authorities had "sufficient reason" to close the airspace over conflict-stricken eastern Ukraine before the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, according to the findings of a Dutch investigation into the crash. The Boeing 777 was heading from Amsterdam to Malaysia when it was shot down on July 17, 2014, over Ukrainian territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists. All 298 people aboard the aircraft died in the crash.  The Dutch Safety Board (DSB) said whatever happened to the plane happened quickly, leaving the passengers dazed or unconscious. And while it's not clear if anyone died in midair, no one could have survived the plane's impact with the ground, the DSB said. The DSB took the lead in the crash investigation at the request of Ukraine, which remains locked in conflict with pro-Russian separatists in its eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. |
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Post by Admin on Jul 9, 2017 18:46:53 GMT
 Ukrainian authorities arrested two men that it claims are Russian security agents off the Black Sea coast after the pair apparently got lost at sea in a tiny boat during a training exercise in Crimea, seized from Ukraine by Russia in 2014. The men, who were washed ashore in Ukraine's Kherson region, claimed to be agents of Russia's Federal Security Bureau (FSB) who had been deployed in Crimea, where they were taking part in a training drill, the head of Ukraine’s border police, Viktor Nazarenko, announced on Facebook.  Russia has not yet commented publicly on the arrest but has contacted Ukrainian authorities to confirm the men were FSB patrol guards, Ukraine’s border guard spokesman Oleg Slobodyan told the local 112 channel. The two men have been jailed for 15 days. It is not the first time Russian security or military officials have arrived unannounced in Ukraine under suspicious circumstances. |
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