Series of explosions hits Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk, at least 29 wounded

[Krieglord]

This is terrible

Good thing arrests have been made

http://rt.com/news/ukraine-dnepropet...sion-tram-127/

Four explosions have shaken the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk injuring at least 29 people. The blasts struck a series of locations in the city center. Local authorities have begun a terrorist investigation into the incident.
Interfax reports that at least ten children were among the wounded.
Police have arrested the first terror suspects, local media report citing the Interior Ministry.

The first explosion went off as a crowded tram pulled into a stop injuring five passengers. Local authorities say it was caused by a bomb planted in a nearby rubbish bin.

“The explosion was at a tram stop. The shockwaves smashed the tram’s windows, and the doors buckled on two cars passing by. In one car, the airbags popped out. Police were there in a minute, fire fighters arrived in about five minutes,” writes Master_Tyre, a city web forum user.
Forty minutes afterwards a second explosion was reported close to the city’s railway station, wounding seven while the third hit a park injuring one woman.
Authorities say that the fourth blast struck near the opera house close to the site of the first explosion.
It has been reported that some of the explosions were caused by “incendiary devices” planted in rubbish bins. As a consequence police are systematically removing bins and checking them throughout the city.
Authorities have reportedly begun the full evacuation of the Dnepropetrovsk train station causing a stampede of people towards the exits. Local media says sniffer dogs and members of the bomb squad have arrived at the scene after receiving an anonymous call saying there was a threat of an explosion at the station.
Train services have stopped running until further notice.
Local Ukrainian site vgorode.ua reports widespread panic in the city where people are afraid where the next explosion will occur. Traffic has reportedly ground to a halt in the city center as people flee their offices in an attempt to get home. The city’s police have warned citizens to stay indoors. Interior troops have been deployed in the city.
Telephone networks are down in the city after being inundated with calls of people fearing for the safety of their friends and family. Some news agencies have also suggested authorities may have shutdown networks to curtail possible terrorist activity.
It is unclear exactly how many explosions have hit the city with some local media outlets reporting up to ten.
Ukrainian president Viktor Yankovich has announced the creation of a group of specialists that will investigate the blasts. Moscow will assist in the probe, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

“Our best investigators and detectives will be looking into the incident,” said Yankovich.
Ukraine is set to host the Euro 2012 football championship in June. Matches will be held in Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lviv. Authorities have already vowed to guarantee security for the event.
*
History of terrorist attacks

Donetsk is the closest major city to Dnepropetrovsk and has been put on high alert following the explosions, given that it has a history of recent terror attacks.
On January 20, 2011, two bombs rocked the Ukrainian city of Makeevka in the Donetsk region. One was placed in a phone booth near a shopping center and another 600 meters away in a rubbish bin. No-one was injured in the two explosions.
However, unknown individuals demanded four million euros from Makeevka authorities, threatening to detonate more bombs around the city if their demands were not met. Later two men were arrested in connection with the blasts and charged with acts of terrorism.
November 2011, a rubbish bin exploded on the sidewalk of Karl Marx Avenue in Dnepropetrovsk killing one person. Just like in January, the alleged organizers of the attack demanded 5 million euros and warned that explosions would strike the city of Donetsk if authorities did not comply.

[s.rwitt]

Ukraine? That seems kind of random, is it simply financially motivated?

[Sphere]

Karl Marx Avenue

I bet it has no fast lane.

[Condottiere 40K]

The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 people and injuring 651. The explosions occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and Volgodonsk on 16 September. Several other bombs were defused in Moscow at the time.[1]
A similar bomb was found and defused in the Russian city of Ryazan on 23 September 1999. On the next day Federal Security Service Director Nikolai Patrushev announced that the Ryazan incident had been a training exercise.[2]
Together with the Invasion of Dagestan launched from Chechnya in August 1999 by Islamist militia led by Shamil Basayev and Ibn al-Khattab, the bombings caused the Russian Federation to launch the Second Chechen War.
Although on 2 September 1999, the militia commander Ibn Al-Khattab announced that "The mujahideen of Dagestan are going to carry out reprisals in various places across Russia,"[3] on 14 September he denied responsibility for the blasts, adding that he was fighting the Russian army, not women and children.[4]
An official investigation of the bombings was completed by the Russian Federal Security Service in 2002. According to the investigation and the court ruling that followed, the bombings were organized by Achemez Gochiyaev, who remained at large as of 2010, and ordered by Ibn Al-Khattab and Abu Omar al-Saif, who were later killed. Six other suspects have been convicted by Russian courts.
State Duma member Yuri Shchekochikhin filed two motions for a parliamentary investigation of the events, but the motions were rejected by the Duma in March 2000. An independent[5] public commission to investigate the bombings was chaired by Duma deputy Sergei Kovalev. The commission was rendered ineffective because of government refusal to respond to its inquiries.[6][7] The Commission's lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin was arrested for exposing classified information.[8]
Yury Felshtinsky (resides in the USA), Alexander Litvinenko (assassinated in 2006), Boris Berezovsky (oligarch in British exile), David Satter, Boris Kagarlitsky, Vladimir Pribylovsky, the secessionist Chechen authorities claimed that the 1999 bombings were a false flag attack coordinated by the FSB in order to win public support for a new full-scale war in Chechnya, which boosted Prime Minister and former FSB Director Vladimir Putin's popularity, and brought the pro-war Unity Party to the State Duma and Putin to the presidency within a few months.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]
Gordon Bennett from Conflict Studies Research Centre, Robert Bruce Ware, Paul J. Murphy, Henry Plater-Zyberk, Simon Saradzhyan, Nabi Abdullaev and Richard Sakwa criticized the conspiracy theory, pointing out problems such as the lack of evidence.[21][22][23][24][25]

[justicar5]

any idea on motive yet?

[YuriVII]

Yeah the motive for all we can understand is simply financial. Some home grown terrorists are trying to extort the Ukrainian state and people for money. There seems to be no sign of any political motivation from what I read in any Russian-language press (and what I can make out of Ukrainian press). That or they haven't announced it yet.

Ukraine is split along ethnic lines as many people here know between Russians in the East and Ukrainian nationalists in the West. This has always remained though a political conflict only taking the form of violence in fist fights between MPs in the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine).

[Foreign Intruder]

Yeah the motive for all we can understand is simply financial. Some home grown terrorists are trying to extort the Ukrainian state and people for money. There seems to be no sign of any political motivation from what I read in any Russian-language press (and what I can make out of Ukrainian press). That or they haven't announced it yet.

From what I've read so far, that sounds very plausible and likely to me as well.

It could be idiotic supporters of Julia Timoschenko, or really stupid foreign governments [unlikely IMO] ... but the financial-thesis is rather likely considering that Timoschenko-supporters would only harm themselves and any foreing government wouldn't have a high enough interest to encourage/support such acts, and the Ukrainian government wouldn't do it (to discredit Timoschenko-supporters) as it is hosting the EU-championship.

So financial blackmail seems likely.

Local independence movements seem unlikely, as, so far, there isn't any sign of such groups resorting to terrorism - which woulnd't aid their cause anyhow.

And "sissy, chicken-heart Al-Qaeda" or such seems very unlikely (they'd wait until the main event) to be cowardly and do yellow-bellied, get-me-not suicide "blow-me-ups".

[Ketnix]

They were sure fast in getting out those BTRs, Interior troops im guessing? I was pretty shocked when I read the headline a few minutes ago, I wouldn't know who has a grudge against Ukraine.

[Sarissofoi]

Dunno.
It can be Ukrainian goverment, Russian agents, Russian nationalist, ukrainian supremacist, criminals, USA agents or even Germans.
We will see.

[s.rwitt]

Why would any of those governments set off bombs in the Ukraine?

[Sarissofoi]

Ukr goverment to have ecscuse to crush any opposition, Russian nationalist to destabilize country(but they will strike in Kiev most likely), ukr supremacist to show Russians that they have the power, USA(using their proxies) to poke Russians and make some troubles, Germans to make Euro 2012 relocate to Germany.

[Tiberios]

Ukr goverment to have ecscuse to crush any opposition, Russian nationalist to destabilize country(but they will strike in Kiev most likely), ukr supremacist to show Russians that they have the power, USA(using their proxies) to poke Russians and make some troubles, Germans to make Euro 2012 relocate to Germany.

That makes absolutely no sense. At all. Especially the part regarding the US and Germany, that borders in being a ridicoulus idea.

As for Russia, if they wanted to destabilize Ukraine, they'd probably just start shutting down the gas to Ukraine, like they have done before.

[YuriVII]

That makes absolutely no sense. At all. Especially the part regarding the US and Germany, that borders in being a ridicoulus idea.

As for Russia, if they wanted to destabilize Ukraine, they'd probably just start shutting down the gas to Ukraine, like they have done before.

No shutting down gas is mostly because of contractual reasons. Ukraine is bad at paying its bills! Also accusations that they siphon some extra gas off has some legitimacy to it.

Besides Russias gas problems with Ukraine actually harms Russia politically. It helps isolate them from Europe and unites Ukrainians against Moscow more than anything. But then again Russia needs to be paid according to contract or anyone can just start dodging their contractual obligations with Russia.

Loose-loose situation they have there.

[Tiberios]

No shutting down gas is mostly because of contractual reasons. Ukraine is bad at paying its bills! Also accusations that they siphon some extra gas off has some legitimacy to it.

Besides Russias gas problems with Ukraine actually harms Russia politically. It helps isolate them from Europe and unites Ukrainians against Moscow more than anything. But then again Russia needs to be paid according to contract or anyone can just start dodging their contractual obligations with Russia.

Loose-loose situation they have there.

I know it does. It just seems to me that if Russia wanted to disrupt Ukraine, they would turn off the gas and not plant bombs on city streets.

[Disaray]

Seems like an odd way to make money for a gangster though. Still makes about as much snece, may be a little more than, as any thing else that has been floated as a reasoning for it. I know more about Russia than Ukrain but that whole reagon was and to an extent still is pleaged by orgonized crime outfits that filled the power vacume left by the Soviets just after the fall. And thost orgonized crime operations are notoriously harsh and violent, perhaps this is some kind of back lash for the city/oblast/state not copitulating to damends.

It seems to me to be less likely that it was the Russians. This attack was far too generalized for them to runing some kind of covert op. Those are generaly much more focused in on individuals or smal orgonizations and rarely have this much colateral damage. Eather that or they go for the grand displays of power: the invasion of Osetia, or the reprizal shellings of Chechnian cities for seperatist terrorist acts, or the gas shutdown in the Ukrain. Contract dispute or not there were ways to work that out with out shuting off the gas in the middle of a rather harsh winter killing a hell of a lot of poeple; that was, above all else, a display of power over the region.

(The BRT likely was Ukrainian National Police, a part of the Army, hence the military hardware; another hold over from the Soviet system.)

[s.rwitt]

None of those actions would be rational. The US, German, and Russian governments are all rational actors. There'd simply be no gain that would be worth the risk of it being discovered. That goes for the Ukrainian government as well. The fact that they've had issues with financially motivated terrorism in the very recent past points to that.

[Ketnix]

None of those actions would be rational. The US, German, and Russian governments are all rational actors. There'd simply be no gain that would be worth the risk of it being discovered. That goes for the Ukrainian government as well. The fact that they've had issues with financially motivated terrorism in the very recent past points to that.

This.

All those governments have everything to lose if they even thought about doing such a thing. No matter how much some people on TWC want to call the West or Russia irrational, they arn't.

[YuriVII]

Dneipropetrovsk is pro-Russian city. So for them to do something there would be odd. Maybe to do a sorta false flag thing, but I think people are putting too much into it as there is no political message. These people have demanded one thing- and that is ransom. Terrorism doesn't have to be political- it can just be pure naked gangsterism.

[Krieglord]

http://en.rian.ru/world/20120428/173108828.html

Ukraine Denies Political Links in Dnepropetrovsk Blasts






The Ukrainian Interior Ministry has denied political motives behind Friday's bomb attacks in the eastern city of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukrainian top investigator Vasily Farinnik told Inter TV channel on Saturday.

“I don’t see any politics in it [attack]. It is of a criminal nature,” Farinnik said in an interview with Inter TV channel. The investigator also said that it was too early to speak about the specific goals of the attacks.

Ten bombs went off in Dnepropetrovsk on Friday afternoon, injuring at least 30 people, according to official information.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. President Viktor Yanukovych described them as “yet another challenge for us, for the entire country.” He arrived in Dnepropetrovsk on Saturday to oversee the investigation into the attacks, Unian news agency reported.
The attacks are an attempt to undermine Ukraine’s image ahead of the Euro-2012 which Ukraine will host along with Poland, the head of the Ukrainian Football Fedration, Grigory Surkis, said on Friday.

“I don’t know who is behind the Dnepropetrovsk blasts, but I think that these people…are attempting to undermine the authority of our country ahead of the Euro-2012,” Surkis said.

The Ukrainian opposition said that the explosions were a part of a government-backed plan to impose an emergency situation in the country and restrict people’s rights.

“When the country has plunged into such a situation, rights and freedoms should be minimized and an emergency situation should be imposed. The president as the Protector of the Constitution must react to this,” Ukrainian news website Obkom.net.ua quoted one of the leaders of the opposition Batkyvshchina party, Mykola Tomenko, as saying.

According to another version widely discussed in Ukrainian media, the blasts were carried out to avert public attention from the scandal with jailed ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko who has recently complained of brutal beatings by prison authorities.
The Ukrainian nationalist party UNA-UNSO said on Saturday that it was Russia’s Kremlin that could be behind the blasts.
“It’s the Kremlin that, in our opinion, is interested in blasts, death and instability in Ukraine. It puts Euro-2012 under threat as well as foreign investments and the European choice as a whole,” the Novy Region news agency quoted a statement by the UNA-UNSO party as saying.
The party also did not rule out that it was one of the Ukrainian political forces who organized the attacks to undermine Yanukovych’s power.
“Everything leads to a political crisis that would leave both the [current] power and opposition at a loss,” UNA-UNSO told the news agency.

[Thorn777]

Regarding Ukraine these days, I wouldnt rule anything out, specially blackmailing criminals who know when the time is right.