KYIV–Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov claims that a detained Sich battalion fighter participating in the Anti-Terrorist Operation [sic] in Donbas, who is now on leave in Kyiv, has confessed that he threw a defensive grenade during clashes outside the Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv between law enforcement units and protesters who are against decentralization-related amendments to the Constitution.
“Detained Ihor Humeniuk used a hand-thrown defensive grenade… He had one grenade with him during detention, the other had been thrown before, as he confessed. What is more, he had a safety pin from it. He introduced himself as a Svoboda party member and a Sich battalion fighter, who is on leave from August 3 to September 3,” Avakov said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, a National Guard serviceman died of a grenade shrapnel wound on Monday. He had been injured during the recent developments near the parliament’s building.
The clashes outside the Verkhovna Rada’s building started after the Verkhovna Rada had voted to amend the Ukrainian Constitution, introducing decentralization provisions to grant a special status to Donbas.
Protesters disagreeing with the amendments started throwing bottles, smoke bombs and paving stones at law enforcement officers guarding the parliament’s building on Monday. Also, a defensive grenade was thrown at them.
Police reported about 100 wounded servicemen. Ten of them remain in a serious condition.
KYIV – The suspect in killing of the National Guard soldier, detained by police, was a member of Sich volunteer battalion of patrol police special forces, the unit’s commander Oleksandr Pysarenko has confirmed.
“Battalion troops are not allowed to bring weapons from the Donbas conflict zone, so I don’t know where our fighter got a grenade,” Pysareno said in an interview with Hromadske.tv.
At the same time, journalists have found several grenades at battalion’s base in Mezhyhiria.
In addition, according to Pysarenko, all members of the battalion are supposed to be politically uncommitted, because the unit is part of the Interior Ministry forces. However, paraphernalia of Svoboda party were spotted at the base.
However, the battalion claims that the suspect, Ihor Humeniuk, was in the process of unsolicited dismissal, according to its official Facebook page.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov claimed that a detained Sich battalion fighter, participant in the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donbas, who was on leave in Kyiv, had confessed he had thrown a grenade during clashes outside the Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv between law enforcement units and protesters who were against decentralization-related amendments to the Constitution.
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Ukrainian Hromadske television news report of visit to ‘Sich Battalion’ base (no English subtitles)
