http://rt.com/news/ukraine-kharkov-radicals-attack-982/Two killed in gunmen attack on anti-Maidan activists in Kharkov – reports Published time: March 14, 2014 21:27
Edited time: March 15, 2014 05:43
Two people were killed overnight in Ukraine's Kharkov, where gunmen from the radical Right Sector movement attacked self-defense activists and took hostages. Police eventually detained the armed people and the hostages were released.
The armed group barricaded itself inside the local headquarters of Right Sector, from where it was shooting and throwing flash grenades and Molotov cocktails at Kharkov anti-Maidan activists who gathered outside.
Two people were killed in the shooting and at least four more were wounded, authorities said. The armed group took hostage three men – two activists and one policeman – who reportedly went inside to negotiate their surrender.
Mayor Gennady Kernes managed to get one of the hostages out after spending around 10 minutes inside the barricaded Right Sector headquarters.
“There are around 40 radicals inside,” Kernes told journalists, as cited by Itar-Tass. “Two men remain hostage, one of whom is a policeman who entered the building for negotiations.”
Police deployed at the scene cordoned off the area and in the early hours of Saturday stormed the building. Around 30 gunmen were detained as a result.
“We have started to identify these people, as they don’t have passports with them,” Anatoly Dmitriev, the head of the Kharkov region police told Itar-Tass. “We’ll lift fingerprints from weapons, which are left inside the building.”
The incident reportedly began after a Kharkov self-defence group patrolling the city square noticed a suspicious Volkswagen van and tried to stop it. It was the same van involved in a shooting back on March 8, when one of the anti-Maidan activists was wounded.
When the driver refused to stop, LifeNews reports, activists chased the van to the building on Rymarska Street, where the office of Right Sector is located.
The shooting started after the activists tried to enter the building. Gunmen were also throwing flash grenades and Molotov cocktails from the second floor of the building, LifeNews reports.
Activists had to retreat waiting for police and ambulances to arrive. Meanwhile numerous videos of the incident captured by the activists and have been uploaded on YouTube.
The mayor of Kharkov Gennady Kernes also arrived at the scene for “negotiations,” but when he approached the building the shooting resumed, local activist Sergey Yudaev who was live streaming the incident told RT.
Yudaev said that local authorities were apparently covering up the actions of Right Sector and trying to hide the fact that the group has a hideout with a cache of weapons in that building. Yudaev also confirmed the incident on March 8, when a group in that exact van attacked several peaceful activists who were returning from an anti-Maidan rally.
Yudaev also said that it took activists almost 40 minutes to make the police respond to the call, since the new police chief appointed by the Kiev “junta” is covering up all crimes carried out by the Right Sector in Kharkov.
The local “junta controlled” media, Yudaev warned, have already twisted the story and tried to present it as an attack by Oplot movement on an office of some "political organization" that has nothing to do with Right Sector. But the group inside the building is anything but peaceful, Yudaev said, as videos clearly show Molotov cocktails being thrown at people standing outside.
On Thursday, bloody clashes in the city of Donetsk between rival rallies ended with a murder and multiple wounded. This proves those in power in Kiev do not control the situation in Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Ministry stated, stressing Moscow reserves right to protect compatriots.