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Ukraine president to visit blast scene amid terror probe
Source: Agencies |
April 28, 2012, Saturday
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Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was Saturday expected to visit the eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk rocked by a series of explosions that injured 26 people ahead of the Euro-2012 football tournament.
Four blasts went off in central Dnipropetrovsk yesterday, wounding 26, the emergency situations ministry said Saturday, revising an earlier figure of 27.
It said that 22 people remained in hospital, with three in a serious condition, one of them a teenager.
Yanukovych who called the attacks a challenge to the nation was expected to visit the Russian-speaking city later in the day joining top officials including the interior minister, after prosecutors opened a probe into possible terrorism.
The so-far unclaimed attacks came just weeks before Ukraine and Poland co-host the the European football championship, starting June 8, and coincided with an anti-terrorism security drill at a host stadium in Kiev.
Although Dnipropetrovsk is not a host city in the country's first major international sports event, it lies on the route of a tour the trophy will be taken on, due to visit the city of one million on May 21.
Dnipropetrovsk is also the home town of Yanukovych's fiercest foe, the 2004 Orange Revolution leader Yulia Tymoshenko, who is serving a disputed jail sentence that has strained Ukraine's ties with the European Union.
The first bomb, hidden in a rubbish bin, exploded shortly before noon Friday, followed by three more blasts over the next hour, all in the same busy part of the city.
Europe's football governing body UEFA said it was confident Ukraine could ensure security despite the attacks, though Donald Tusk, prime minister of co-host Poland, said: "This issue needs to be treated with the utmost seriousness."
The head of the Football Federation of Ukraine Grigory Surkis said the blasts aimed at undermining Ukraine's ability to host the tournament.
"There are enough reasons that the aim is to torpedo the tournament in Ukraine at all costs and compromise our country in the eyes of the international community," he said in a statement to AFP.
The EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the European Union was in close contact with Ukraine and ready to provide assistance.
Four blasts went off in central Dnipropetrovsk yesterday, wounding 26, the emergency situations ministry said Saturday, revising an earlier figure of 27.
It said that 22 people remained in hospital, with three in a serious condition, one of them a teenager.
Yanukovych who called the attacks a challenge to the nation was expected to visit the Russian-speaking city later in the day joining top officials including the interior minister, after prosecutors opened a probe into possible terrorism.
The so-far unclaimed attacks came just weeks before Ukraine and Poland co-host the the European football championship, starting June 8, and coincided with an anti-terrorism security drill at a host stadium in Kiev.
Although Dnipropetrovsk is not a host city in the country's first major international sports event, it lies on the route of a tour the trophy will be taken on, due to visit the city of one million on May 21.
Dnipropetrovsk is also the home town of Yanukovych's fiercest foe, the 2004 Orange Revolution leader Yulia Tymoshenko, who is serving a disputed jail sentence that has strained Ukraine's ties with the European Union.
The first bomb, hidden in a rubbish bin, exploded shortly before noon Friday, followed by three more blasts over the next hour, all in the same busy part of the city.
Europe's football governing body UEFA said it was confident Ukraine could ensure security despite the attacks, though Donald Tusk, prime minister of co-host Poland, said: "This issue needs to be treated with the utmost seriousness."
The head of the Football Federation of Ukraine Grigory Surkis said the blasts aimed at undermining Ukraine's ability to host the tournament.
"There are enough reasons that the aim is to torpedo the tournament in Ukraine at all costs and compromise our country in the eyes of the international community," he said in a statement to AFP.
The EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the European Union was in close contact with Ukraine and ready to provide assistance.
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