Bombs in Odessa
Details of the terrorist attacks in Odessa, Ukraine.
Anti-Ukrainian activities in Odessa was calm down for the autumn time but raised again in December of 2014.
Now all activity of pro-Russian organizations and groupings in the city turned into a purely anonymous guerrilla and terrorist activity. The number of bangs increases. At this time, the police increase the number of employees engaged in providing order. Security service holds a lot of arrests, but still no one has been found guilty yet.
Bombs are Growing
Below is a graph of the distribution of terrorist attacks by months. Most of the bangs (12) has exploded in the last 3 months.
Until last month, nothing was not taken for avoid explosions. But apparently residents of the city have become more attentive to the possible attacks.
In February, citizens were found three explosive devices that have TNT. And it was neutralized by police officers. And this is without false calls and checkups. Look at video from video of one such false call:
Head of the department of public relations of the Odessa PD, Colonel Vladimir Shablienko told us about the security measures in the city:
The Police have enhanced patrols teamwise with public activists as measures to prevent possible explosions. The number of active officers has doubled. So for now about 1,000 patrol employees at the same time.
Terrorists Targets
As you can see, explosions scattered throughout the city map. All the explosions occurred between 10PM — 5AM. Currently, one person died as a result of the explosion.
Targets of explosions are varied but all cases are associated with either volunteering or with strategically important objects as rails & recruitment office or it is the property of people with public pro-Ukrainian activities.
A person whose property has suffered from the last bombing on February 18 is the leader of the Odessa AutoMaidan and well-known in the city pro-Ukrainian activist. Eugene Rezvushkin answered my question “Does he believe that the SBU will be able to find the bombers?”:
“I do not believe in our Security Service Agency, if they will tell who is guilty in my case they will need to tell about others too.”
Investigation
One of the victims of the explosion shared with us that the nature of explosions, the ingredients used, as well as other details of the majority of those bomb attacks, are too similar or identical. This gives to investigators a reason to believe that the wave of bombings at least for last 3 months is held by the same person or group.
At the same time, the Security Service of Ukraine, refused to comment on any details of the investigation, citing the secrecy of the investigation. All I could find from them is “on Feb. 23, 2015 for the bombings has been detained no suspects and no accused”.
You can also frequently hear the opinion that in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Odessa and the Odessa PD there are some officers who are opposed to the investigation of these cases and that hinder the investigation. Saying this nobody names those persons.
The TNT was used in most cases. Obviously, Odessa isn’t such kind of places where you can freely buy trinitrotoluene (TNT). Hence, the terrorists must be connected either to the secret service of the Russian Federation in the city or to the local criminals or to law enforcement agencies in Odessa, who also have access to explosives.
“For the bombings cases has been detained no suspects and no accused”.
Separatists Reaction
Despite the clear connection between the explosions, both in terms of the objectives of terrorist acts and executors, any organizations or groupings does not take responsibility for the bombings.
By the way, this is typical for most separatist’s and anti-Ukrainian actions in the city for the last half year. They are anonymous, have a huge media support within pro-Russian online communities and Russian media and often sounded as covert operations of Ukrainian or American secret services against the Ukrainian people, for feeding the conflict and hatred of Russian people…
There are no difference for explosions in Odessa for the last 3 months. In general, anti-Ukrainian community respond positively to the bombings, with most of the wine rests on the covert operations of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
Measures to Prevent
The press service of the Odessa law enforcement officers tells us a little about the measures taken to protect the residents of the city.
Press Service of the Police Department:
Under our protection are all volunteer organizations and potential targets of bombings, as well as under heavy security are strategically important objects, such as rails for example.
Press Service of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU):
In addition to operational activities, we inform public of potential threat and how to behave in such situations via brochures, city billboards and public service announcements on TV.
This story was written for Odesa Zahidna by Andy Burkovetsky. It was edited by Jane Shvits and fact-checked by Andriy Fedotov.
Used materials of Odessa Police Dep., Dumskaya.net, Timer.od.ua and Hromadske Odessa.
