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2012 Dnipropetrovsk explosions

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2012 Dnipropetrovsk Explosions
LocationFour tram stations in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine Ukraine
DateFriday, 27 April 2012 between 11:50 and 13:00 EET (EET)
TargetPublic transport system and users
Attack type
IED
Deaths0
Injured26[1][2]-29

The 2012 Dnipropetrovsk explosions were a series of co-ordinated explosions in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine on 27 April 2012. The bombs went off between 11:50 and 13:00 near four tram stations.[3] The attacks' motivations are not publicly known.

Chronology of the attacks

On April 27, beginning at around 11:50, four home-made bombs went off in different locations within the city of Dnipropetrovsk. The first bomb went at 11:50 a.m. local time and the last bomb went off at 1:00 p.m. The bombs were all placed in trashcans near four tram stations, belonging to the same line:[4]

  • The first bomb exploded at 11:50 a.m. It was placed in a trash can in a tram stop near the Opera House, and exploded as the tram was slowing to pick up passengers. The bomb injured 13 people and shattered the windows of the tram and a nearby car.
  • The second bomb exploded 30 minutes later. The bomb was placed in a trashcan near the Rodina cinema and injured 11 people, nine of them children.
  • The third bomb exploded shortly after the second one. It was placed in the Ostrovsky Square. Three people were injured, and there were no reported fatalities.
  • The fourth bomb went off at the same tram station as the first one. No one was injured.

Minutes after the explosion, panic began spreading in the city of Dnipropetrovsk. People remained in their offices following a rumor that there were more blasts coming. Students remained at school. Several buildings were placed into "lockdown mode".[5]

Internet connections in the area went down for hours after the explosions. Telephone networks jammed up quickly, and as of April 28, telephone companies were still struggling to restore functionality to their networks. Furthermore, Ukrainian authorities jammed the signal in certain parts of the city, in response to the theory that the bombs may have been triggered by cellphones.[6]

Victims

Ukraine's Emergencies Ministry initially reported that 27 people were injured, but authorities revised the figure to 26 the day after the explosions. Among those injured were 9 teenagers. 22 people remained in hospitalized as of 28 April, including three who were in a serious condition.[1]

According to security experts interviewed by Interfax, the nature of the injuries received by the victims suggests that the devices did not contain damaging elements, and the resulting injuries were probably caused by the debris of trash bins and other items.[7]

Investigations

The authorities stated that the attacks were a terrorist act[8] and reported that several suspects have been placed under arrest.[9]

On April 27 the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych assembled a committee to carry out an investigation of the explosions, with members including Viktor Pshonka, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine; Chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine, Igor Kalinin; Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health, Raisa Bohatyryova; and Sergei Liovochkin, Head of the Presidential Administration.[10]

The Dnipropetrovsk regional prosecutor opened a criminal case on counts of terrorism.[11] The criminal case on the grounds of an offense under Part 2 of Art. 258 of the Criminal Code (terrorist act), was transferred to the organization of pre-trial investigation in the investigative unit of the central apparatus of the Security Service of Ukraine.[12]

As of April 29, 2012 SBU investigators sought three men on suspicion of committing a crime, whose sketch were created and published.[13] It is known that they were all men. One of them was about 30 years, another about 40, the third from 35 to 45 years.[14]

Background

Ukraine has not been afflicted with political terrorism, but there had been previous explosions connected to criminal extortion; in a previous attack in January 2011, two pre-dawn explosions outside an office of a coal mining company and then a shopping center in the Ukrainian city of Makiivka caused no casualties. Authorities then received letters demanding money in exchange for an end to the blasts. The perpetrators were arrested and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.[15][16]

The Dnipropetrovsk attacks came 40 days ahead of the UEFA Euro 2012 games, hosted in Poland and Ukraine. This raised security concerns over the safety of the games,[17][18][19] though no match was actually scheduled to be held in in Dnipropetrovsk.[20] UEFA anyway dismissed any hypothesis of moving the championship anywhere else because of security reasons.[21] Hryhoriy Surkis, head of the Football Federation of Ukraine declared he believed the blasts aimed "to torpedo the tournament in Ukraine at all costs and compromise our country in the eyes of the international community." Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk remarked: "This issue [tournament security] needs to be treated with the utmost seriousness".[22]

Dnipropetrovsk is the birthplace of the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, whose trial, jailing, and alleged abuses in prison were in the political debate in and about Ukraine in April 2012.[23][24] The explosions came out the same day as pictures of bruises and scratches on her body, allegedly documenting abuses suffered in prison, after a one-week hunger strike as an appeal for receiving treatment abroad for her chronic back pain.[22] The European Union and several of its member states, notably Germany, have been pressuring the Yanukovich government in order to halt the detention of Tymoshenko in fear of her degrading health.[23] EU-Ukraine relations have been strained by the issue, considered by EU leaders as a politically motivated trial.[22] The Association Agreement and the deep and comprehensive free trade agreement between Ukraine and the bloc have been delayed since late 2011 and not been signed yet.[25] Several meetings with Yanukovich have been disserted by EU leaders, including the German president Joachim Gauck.[15] [26] Opposition MPs in Ukraine have called for EU government officials to boycott the Euro 2012 soccer championship.[15] In April 2012, the top PR consultancy Burson-Marsteller was hired by Ukraine's ruling Party of Regions (PoR), "to help the PoR communicate its activities as the governing party of Ukraine, as well as to help it explain better its position on the Yulia Tymoshenko case", as explained by Robert Mack, a senior manager at Burson-Marsteller.[27][relevant?]

The event may also have repercussions on the forecoming 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[28]

Neighbouring Russia and Belarus have experienced terrorism in recent years. The 2010 Moscow Metro bombings caused 40 deaths and were related to Chechen separatism. The 2011 Minsk Metro bombing caused 15 deaths; its motives remain unclear. Differently than in these cases, the Dnipropetrovsk bombings caused no casualties.

Reactions

In Ukraine

Politics

The authorities have stated that the attacks were a terrorist act.[8]

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich declared "We... understand that this is another challenge to us, to the whole country. We will think how to respond accordingly.[29] Speaking in Dnipropetrovsk on 28 April, Yanukovich offered 200.000 euro to citizens able to provide the authorities with useful information on the authors of the attack.[30]

Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov declared that the explosions "are profitable to those forces that are interested in destabilizing the situation in the country.".[31]

Mykola Tomenko, deputy parliament speaker and member of the opposition, suggested the blasts were orchestrated by the government in order to quiet Western criticism of Yulia Tymoshenko's imprisonment and brutalization: "I don't rule out that the authorities and law enforcement bodies may be among the organizers of a scenario, which involves deflecting the attention of the world and Ukraine form Tymoshenko's case on the whole and her beating in particular." [31] Volodymyr Yavorivsky, head of the Culture Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament and member of the opposition, accused the government parties to have staged the attack in order to jeopardise the next Ukrainian elections and install an authoritarian regime.[28]

Experts and analysts

According to Vadim Karassev, director of the Ukrainian Institute of Global Strategies, the blasts might have been prepared by the secret services in order to spread panic, fear, and confusion in Dnipropetrovsk and in Ukraine. This strategy of tension might be instrumental in limiting political activism and oppositional mobilisation in Ukraine under the pretext of terrorism.[28]

Kirill Frolov, director of the Ukraine desk of the Institute for the studies of the CIS countries, supported the hypothesis of a political motivation for the attack, but also condemned the cynicism of the opposition in accusing the government for the attack. According to Frolov, the Yanukovich regime did not need such an event, as his political manifesto for the upcoming elections will be based on the good conduct of the EURO2012.[32]

Abroad

Matthew Rojansky, on CNN, suggested several possible motivations for the attack, ranging from random acts of violence, or the work of gangs from Ukraine’s criminal underworld and endlessly feuding oligarchs, to international terrorism linked to al-Qa'eda, up to the eventual involvement of Russian secret services.[20]

See also

Sources

  1. ^ a b "Bomb blasts injure 26 people in eastern Ukraine". BNO News. 28 April 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  2. ^ "Belarussia is ready to help Ukraine to investigate the terrorist actions". Ukrayinska Pravda. 28 April 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  3. ^ Ukraine Explosions: Three Blasts Reported
  4. ^ Emergency Message for US Citizens, osac.gov
  5. ^ Ukraine city Dnip-vsk hit by blasts, bbc.co.uk
  6. ^ Mobile communications cut in Dmip-vsk
  7. ^ Вибухи в Дніпропетровську повинні були налякати, а не пошкодити? Українська правда Template:Ua icon
  8. ^ a b Series of explosions hit Ukraine
  9. ^ Four bomb blasts hit Eastern Ukraine ahead of Euro 2012 Matches, nationalpost.com, April 27, 2012
  10. ^ "В Днепропетровске состоялось заседание штаба по расследованию взрывов" (in Russian). elvisti.com. Retrieved 2012-04-28.
  11. ^ Kyiv Post
  12. ^ "Кримінальну справу передано до СБУ" (in Ukrainian). Генеральна прокуратура України. Офіційний інтернет-портал. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  13. ^ "УВАГА РОЗШУК!" (in Ukrainian). Служба безпеки України. Офіційний інтернет-портал. Retrieved 2012-04-29.
  14. ^ "Составлены фотороботы трех подозреваемых во взрывах в Днепропетровске" (in Russian). БелТА. Retrieved 2012-04-30.
  15. ^ a b c Independent.co.uk
  16. ^ Appeals court upholds sentence for 'Makiyivka terrorists', Kyiv Post (December 30, 2011)
  17. ^ Ukraine bomb blasts Euro 2012
  18. ^ Ukraine Bomb Blasts Scores Injured, guardian.co.uk, April 27, 2012
  19. ^ Multiple Explosions Rock Ukraine
  20. ^ a b CNN, Matthew Rojansky
  21. ^ La voce della Russia Template:It icon
  22. ^ a b c AFP-Yahoo
  23. ^ a b The Guardian
  24. ^ BBC
  25. ^ Kiyv Post
  26. ^ Merkel: Germany tries to negotiate to treat Tymoshenko in Berlin ("Меркель: Німеччина намагається домовитись про лікування Тимошенко в Берліні") Ukrayinska Pravda April 28, 2012
  27. ^ EU Observer, 27 April 2012
  28. ^ a b c East Journal, 29 April 2012 Template:It icon
  29. ^ Kiyv Post, 27 April 2012
  30. ^ Euronews
  31. ^ a b Huffington Post
  32. ^ La Voce della Russia, 29 April 2012 Template:It icon
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