March 1, 2014, 14:55, Daria Iurovska
In Kharkiv at 2 p.m., some of the participants of a demonstration at Freedom Square, wearing St. George ribbons, went to storm the Oblast State Administration (OSA) building. Kharkov Mayor Henadyi Kernes had assembled people to this meeting, which he called “a general meeting of patriotic Kharkovians”. Information will be updated.
At first a small group of meeting participants, wearing St. George ribbons, broke down metal fences that Euromaidan supporters had put up in front of the main entrance of the Regional State Administration building. Then the attackers threw rocks at the OSA building.
The attack on the OGA, as indicated in this video, started at 7 minutes and 30 seconds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Az_5F9n14Q
The number of people storming the building grew and grew.
Euromaidan supporters blocked the doors of the Regional State Administration from inside. Then the attackers broke windows on the first floor and entered the OSA through them.
At the same time, some of those who stormed the Oblast State Administration try to enter the building through Mironositskii Street. They also broke windows in the building.
Shots were heard from the windows of the OSA on the second floor.
A MediaPort correspondent tells of wounded on both sides – people received skull fractures.
UDATE 14:30 – News has been received that the exits of the University and Gosprom metro stations are closed; trains are not stopping at them. City minibuses are not going to downtown Kharkov. As MediaPort has observed, the police at this point have not interfered in the conflict. Those attacking with St. George ribbons on have seized several “Euromaidaners.”
UPDATE 14:50 – Those storming the OGA have put up a Russian flag from one of the windows. Russian Federation flags have also appeared at the main entrance and on the roof of the Regional State Administration.
And this photo is by an Instagram user, a Moscovite under the user name venoru.
As a result of the storming, furniture and windows are broken inside the OSA.
On this video, you can see the beginning of the storming, and the end, with the Russian flag on the OSA’s roof.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ2iwI7RwD4
UPD 15.00 The captured Euromaidan supporters were dragged to the stage set up for the “patriotic Kharkovians”.
The oblast Interior Minstry administation was not able to answer if there are any people detained, how many suffered, and why the police did not react when people with rocks were seizing the OSA building. Meanwhile, MediaPort had observed how the police was leading out Eurmaidan supporters.
They were sat on the ground. The police was standing around them.
After that the police locked the people into a bus (visible on the previous photo’s bakground).
UPD 15.58 Vice Mayor Svitlana Horbunova-Ruban tells that there are around 30 injured in the storming.
UPD 16.24 Henadiy Kernes, Kharkiv’s mayor, tells people near the OSA to go home. Earlier, around 13:30, a group of buses was noticed in the city center.
There were buses with Russian license plates too.
UPD 17.06 The Russian flags that were hung on the roof and from the windows were taken down.
UPD 17.25
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov:
“Any information that any kind of squads are moving our of Kyiv into Kharkiv does not correcpond to reality. The situation in Kharkiv will be normalised by joint activities of people of good sense with the help of law-enforcing organs and does not require any forceful actions. At present, the Kharkiv OSA is freed from outsiders, invistigations are being carried out to fixate the damage done.
At the same time, police have taken around 30 people out of the zone of conflict. They are heading to three police stations to record the traumas received and for making protocols. I would like to note that the synchronous nature of similar events at the same time in several Oblast centeres of Ukraine on the background of an activisation of the Russian military presence in Crimea can indicate to a common plan.”
Original link: http://www.mediaport.ua/shturm-obladministracii-v-harkove
Tranlslated by William Risch and Alya Shandra
