All news

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry investigating night explosions in Odessa

Two advertising billboards with patriotic posters were blown up at about 2:30 and 2:35 local time in downtown Odessa

KIEV, June 12. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Friday it is conducting a check over two explosions that occurred last night in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa.

Two advertising billboards with patriotic posters were blown up at about 2:30 and 2:35 local time in downtown Odessa. "As a result of explosive devices’ detonation, both billboards with patriotic ads and a news stall were damaged," the statement said.

"According to preliminary conclusions of bomb experts, it was established that he explosive devices were equivalent to 200 grams of TNT," the ministry said.

The incidents are preliminarily believed to be punishable under the article "Damage to property."

A series of blasts has occurred in Odessa in the past six months. Law enforcement bodies identified all incidents as terrorist attacks and acts of sabotage.

The city of Odessa saw riots on May 2, 2014, during which soccer fans from other cities, as well as Right Sector militants and so-called "Maidan self-defense" representatives from Kiev organized a march along city streets. Clashes with federalization supporters occurred during the march.

Radicals set ablaze the Trade Unions House, where their opponents hid, and a tent camp where activists were collecting signatures for a referendum on Ukraine’s federalization and for the status of a state language for Russian. The attackers did not let anyone leave the burning Trade Unions House building.

At least 48 people died and 247 were injured in the clashes and the fire in the Trade Unions House. Some Ukrainian politicians asserted that the death toll reached 116 but that the Kiev authorities concealed the facts. Investigators have so far failed to name those guilty of the crime.