Kharkiv Bombing Raises Questions on Ukrainian SBU's Credibility
A crowd marches peacefully, their voices on high crying out "Glory to the heroes!" as blue and yellow flags wave proudly. As the camera pans along the crowd, there is a sudden explosion heard and the camera pans downward. The marches disperse in a frightened stampede revealing a camouflaged man, wounded by shrapnel. Others lie in the street while some of those that fled now return to attend to the wounded.¹ Immediately, speculation and suspicion hit the internet as many pointed out the white car that pulls alongside the marchers as they almost simultaneously pause. Then, the explosion. Shortly after the explosion, the white car moves away. Some Ukraine news sources are saying the source of the explosion was an IED (improvised explosive device) made from TNT and packed inside a plastic bag in the snow.⁸ Other news sources are saying it was a grenade thrown from a moving car with a St. George ribbon.² The result of the attack has widely been reported as 2 deceased and at least 9 wounded. In the video though, we clearly do not see the white car moving. In fact, it parks and only moves again after the explosion. Had the explosive been thrown from that car, why would no one point it out or even give notice to it? The IED narrative seems to fit better, but, unfortunately, every camera angle we have seems to have the explosion just out of view.⁹ SBU officials say that the device was similar to that of one used in a January 19 attack in Kharkiv and is comprised of TNT and shrapnel inside a plastic bag.¹⁰
The claim that the IED was hidden in the snow is also called into question. What snow? We can see clearly from the videos and pictures of the event as well as the aftermath that much of the ground is mud. In fact, the street appears to bear singe marks from a grenade type explosion while the side of the road doesn't appear to have been disturbed by anything more than foot traffic. An explosion on the side of the road in mud would assuredly cause for a larger spread of dirt and other material into the road and the direction of the blast. Also, unless it was a precision explosive device, there should be damaged property and wounded on the opposite side of the explosion. Not just those in the road. In other video of the aftermath, we can see people milling about as wounded and dead are still being tended too.¹⁶ The nearest snow to the road is nearly 10 feet away and it is only just a thin coating over the otherwise muddy ground. How could the SBU possibly conduct an investigation to determine that a plastic bag and TNT were used when any evidence of this would have been trampled on by the scores of people in the supposed location of the bomb?
Within just a few hours the Ukraine SBU (federal security service) had reported that they had arrested 4 suspects in connection with the attack and who were reportedly planning to another attack using a RPG-18.⁴ The timing here though is very significant. The reports of these arrests came at exactly 15:22 Kyiv time (GMT+2) and while it was still light out in the city of Kharkiv.⁵ Then, at approximately 20:00, the Ukrainian SBU released a video reportedly showing the arrest of the Kharkiv attack suspects.⁶ In the video, it is already dark out and the suspects are driving along in a black sedan while the SBU swoops in with their SUVs to cut them off. The suspects offer no resistance whatsoever and even put their vehicle into park. As the suspects are pulled from the car, they offer no resistance and one even places his hands behind his back to be cuffed without being asked. All the while, the SBU agents are careful to shield their identities. For those familiar with the SBU, you will know this is highly out of character for them. Every arrest for them is a celebration as they immediately upload their videos of interrogations to YouTube of these supposed Russian terrorists without their faces covered.⁷ ¹¹ And, in the cases where they do blur the face, it is not a very good job.¹²
Just like their other arrests, SBU is claiming that these 4 suspects have ties to Russia and admit being trained in Belgorod by their 'secret handlers.'⁶ They also claim it is there they received a RPG-27/RShG1 to which they were going to use to carry out an attack on an Odessa shopping center.⁴ That RPG-27, seen in pictures uploaded by Markian Lubkivskyi, conveniently has its serial numbers filed off. It is also wrapped in a different plastic (almost like a garbage bag) and not the clear plastic that it would be wrapped in had it come from the factory in Russia as the SBU pointed out in one of their other arrests.¹³
It would appear the Ukrainian SBU is looking to score a propaganda victory here rather than capture the real culprits. Many of these SBU cases of supposed Russian terrorists that are reported in the media seem to drift into obscurity as none of them ever seem to go to trial; nor do we hear about Russia attempting to negotiate for the release of these supposed agents as they have done many times before with other nations.¹⁴ The most glaring piece of evidence though remains the disparity between reports of the capture at 15:22 Kyiv time and the upload of the video at approximately 20:00 Kyiv time with the alleged attackers being apprehended in a night time Kharkiv. Other news & media agencies have all seemed accept Ukraine's narrative of the events without investigating the timeframe of the arrests and some of them even linking the video of the arrest without any suspicions to the obvious performances seen on camera.¹⁵ Finally, there are the holes in the narrative on exactly how the attack happened. We can dismiss initial reports of the passing car throwing a grenade as the usual confusion that comes with a traumatic event like this when bad witness testimony spreads like wildfire. What we cannot dismiss is the fact that the SBU's report of an IED inside a plastic bag with shrapnel hidden in the snow when nothing on the scene indicates this. The SBU timeline, narrative, and evidence is frought with worse-than circumstancial evidence and concludes with an arrest that is more like a terrible B-movie performance than a compelling end to supposedly well-trained Russian terrorists. There are many questions that the Kharkiv bombing raises and it is the Ukrainian government that we should be looking to for the answers.
UPDATE 2.23.15: The SBU is now claiming that the explosion was caused by a MON 100 directional mine and quickly backtracking on their original story of an IED buried in the snow. They are also claiming that the blast was partially absorbed by a car and therefore did not cause as many casualties.¹⁷
¹ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m21sx35os8c
² - http://www.regnum.ru/news/polit/1898195.html
³ - http://fresh-news.org/proisshestviya/158848-novorossiya-22-fevralya-novosti-segodnya-svodki-ot-opolcheniya-situaciya-v-donecke-i-harkove-22022015-obstanovka-v-dnr-i-lnr-segodnya-obzor-boevyh-deystviy-na-donbasse.html
⁴ - https://m.facebook.com/markian.lubkivskyi/posts/1540704436192182
⁵ - http://korrespondent.net/ukraine/events/3482617-v-sbu-soobschyly-o-zaderzhanyy-podozrevaemykh-vo-vzryve-v-kharkove
⁶ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT8a0o9JscE
⁷ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ad8r4X_2TY
⁸ - http://www.newsru.com/world/22feb2015/kharkov2.html
⁹ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNJyPU3hxPw
¹⁰ - http://www.newsru.com/world/22feb2015/kharkov2.html
¹¹ -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqcoaMu_UgU
¹² - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsxLNoI1skA
¹³ - http://charter97.org/ru/news/2014/7/18/107508/
¹⁴ - http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cias-panetta-russian-spy-chief-negotiated-swap/
¹⁵ - https://news.vice.com/article/video-shows-moment-of-deadly-explosion-at-peace-march-in-eastern-ukraine
¹⁶ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U909uOs1yVI
¹⁷ - http://www.interfax.ru/world/425923
