Ukraine probes blasts ahead of Euro 2012
UKRAINE: President Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday visited Ukraine's
industrial heartland after a wave of blasts injured dozens of people
ahead of the Euro 2012 football tournament.
The unclaimed attack came after tensions over the fate of jailed
opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko drew calls from some European leaders
to strip the ex-Soviet nation of the prestigious event ahead of the June
8 kickoff.
Yanukovych, taking personal charge of the blasts probe, held a closed
security meeting at the scene and announced a two-million-hryvnia
($250,000, 190,000 euros) reward “for information that will help solve
the crime.” “We must do all we can to find the criminals and establish
the motives of the crime and its aim,” he said at the start of the
meeting, adding that investigators from neighbouring countries were also
taking part.
He visited victims in several hospitals, meeting patients including a
16-year-old girl who suffered most in the blasts, his office said,
adding that doctors operated on her and managed to save her sight.
“Our main task today is to prevent such a thing happening again,”
Yanukovych said, warning that “it's possible that we are talking about
an attempt to destabilise the situation in the country.” On Saturday, 22
victims remained in hospital, with four in a serious condition, the
health ministry said, putting the total number of injured at 30 as
opposed to the 26 reported by the emergencies ministry.
One male victim had to have an arm amputated, a spokeswoman for the
city's health department told the Interfax news agency.
The rare attacks have shocked Ukraine, which has witnessed no major
acts of terror in its modern history and where political violence is
rare.
“A terrorist attack in Dnipropetrovsk: who needs this?” the
mass-circulated Komsomolskaya Pravda daily asked.
“A tram stop blew up into the air, and passersby bandaged the
wounded,” wrote the Segodnya daily. “There was panic in Dnipropetrovsk
and people were weeping on the streets.” The attacks came as the nation
puts the finishing touches on its preparations for Euro 2012, an event
it is co-hosting with Poland and is hoping to use to showcase the
strides it has made since the Soviet era.
Although Dnipropetrovsk is not a host city in the country's first
majorinternational sports event, it lies on the route of a tour the
trophy will be taken on, visiting the city of one million on May 21.
Europe's football governing body UEFA has said it is confident
Ukraine will be able to ensure security, although 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 told AFP 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.”
AFP |