Explosion rocks office of volunteers helping Ukrainian army in Mykolayiv - Interior Ministry
KYIV. Aug 22 (Interfax) - An explosion rocked the office of volunteers helping the Ukrainian armed forces in Mykolayiv in the early hours of Saturday; no one was injured, but the explosion damaged a window.
"Law enforcement officials have examined the scene and collected elements of an improvised explosive device, which have been sent [to experts] for analysis," the Ukrainian Interior Ministry department for the Mykolayiv region said on its official website.
The incident happened at about 3:00 a.m. on Saturday.
"This fact has been entered in the unified register of pretrial investigations under Ukrainian Criminal Code Article 296, Part 4 (disorderly conduct). The article carries from three to seven years' imprisonment. Police officials are determining the circumstances of the event and individuals responsible for it," the report says.
The local publication NikVesti had reported earlier that the explosion had taken place at the Youth Center in front of high school No. 2 at about 2:40 a.m. "This building has housed an office of volunteers helping the Ukrainian army since September 2014," it said.
A team of investigators is working at the scene now, and the territory has been cordoned off, it said.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said a group of malefactors plotting subversive acts in Mykolayiv in the run-up to Independence Day and during its celebration had been detained two days before.
"Officers from the Security Service department in Mykolayiv detained a group of seven local residents aged from 19 to 41 early on August 20 while they were posting anti-government leaflets," the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said.
During searches at the detainees' homes, security services seized two improvised explosive devices, two grenades, over 500 cartridges, office equipment and communications devices, anti-government printed matter, special literature dealing with subversive activities, and a list of local pro-Ukrainian activists, it said.
The detainees have been notified of being suspected of having committed a crime covered by Ukrainian Criminal Code Article 110, Part 2 (encroachment on Ukraine's territorial integrity and inviolability), which carries up to 10 years' imprisonment and confiscation of property, the Prosecutor General's Office said.
Courts ordered that all suspects be taken into custody pending trial.