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Ukraine announces detention of foreigners involved in protests in Odessa

The Security Service’s press service says two detainees come from Russia and one - from Belarus

KIEV, July 06. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s Security Service has announced detention of three foreign citizens, who, the service said, financed coordinators of Odessa’s “Anti-Maidan” and prepared mass protests against official authorities. The Security Service’s press service says two detainees come from Russia and one - from Belarus.

A statement published on the Security Service’s website reads the detained had arrived in Odessa in late June to “launch a wide work to organise protests,” and among others they distributed flyers calling for participation in rallies.

Besides, the detained are considered responsible for financing the so-called Anti-Maidan in Odessa’s Kulikovo Pole.

Unrest in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa started on May 2 in the afternoon, when football fans from the east Ukrainian city of Kharkov marched along city streets with Right Sector radicals and supporters from Kiev's Maidan Self-Defence Force.

Clashes broke out with campaigners seeking a referendum on the issue of Ukrainian federalisation and Russian's official status as a state language.

At least 48 people died and more than 200 were injured in clashes in Odessa after radicals set ablaze the regional House of Trade Unions, where pro-federaliation activists had taken refuge, and a tent camp near it where activists were collecting signatures in support of the referendum.

Some Ukrainian politicians say the clashes took the lives of at least 116 people.