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Rioters in Western Ukraine seize hundreds of firearms – security service

Rioters who stormed the service’s offices in the Ivano-Frankovsk Region and also in the Lvov and Ternopol regions in the west of the country have laid hands on a large amount of weapons

Disturbances in Western Ukraine ITAR-TASS/Vitaly Grabar

Disturbances in Western Ukraine

© ITAR-TASS/Vitaly Grabar

KIEV, February 19. /ITAR-TASS/. A senior official of Ukraine’s Security Service said that rioters who stormed the service’s offices in the Ivano-Frankovsk Region and also in the Lvov and Ternopol regions in the west of the country have laid hands on a large amount of weapons.

According to the service’s deputy chief, Vladimir Poroiko, in Ivano-Frankovsk the attackers seized 268 firearms, including two machine-guns, 92 hand grenades, and about 10,000 cartridges.

“We are trying to track down where the weapons are to leave no chance for them to be used in mass riots,” he said.

Also, Poroiko said that the rioters may have seized some classified information.

“The Security Service is doing its best to ensure the confidential information the rioters may have obtained should not be disclosed,” he said, adding that the information concerned had been received from foreign counterparts.

The main task of the Ukrainian Security Service is now to maintain the country’s security and territorial integrity, and we do hope that the standoff will be defused and an escalation of the conflict prevented.

Earlier in the day the Ukrainian Security Service had announced a decision had been made to launch a nation-wide counter-terrorist operation.

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