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Operation to free hostages in Kharkov is over

Some 30 people have been detained

KHARKOV, March 15, 8:05 /ITAR-TASS/. The operation to detain militants from the Right Sector radical Ukrainian organization, who opened fire and took hostages in the southern Ukrainian city of Kharkov, has been completed, the interior minister of the Kharkov Region, Anatoly Dmitriyev, said Saturday. 

“Some 30 people have been detained. We are now counting the exact number. We will now establish their identities: they have no passports. We will take fingerprints from weapons that remain in the building,” Dmitriyev told an Itar-Tass correspondent. 

Kharkov mayor Gennady Kernes said earlier Saturday that two people had been killed and another two injured in clashes between Kharkov residents and Right Sector militants.

Reports said people inside the building hosting the Right Sector headquarters with some 40 radicals inside had opened fire and thrown stun grenades and Molotov cocktails from the building’s windows.

One hostage has been released after talks with militants. Two hostages, one of them a police officer, remain in the building. Kernes is expected to make a statement on the situation soon.

Right Sector activists were reportedly involved in clashes with police in Ukraine’s anti-government protests that eventually led to a coup in the country in February.