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Man Detained After Threat To Blow Up Ukrainian Government Building


The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (file photo)
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (file photo)

KYIV -- Police in Ukraine have arrested a man after an hours-long standoff that began when the suspect entered the building that houses the national government in Kyiv with "an object that resembled an explosive device" and threatened to detonate it.

The chief of the Ukrainian National Police, Ihor Klymenko, identified the suspect as a veteran of the war against Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's east.

He said the suspect had been wounded twice in that fighting, including suffering a head injury.

Klymenko said an investigation was under way and the man's motives were still unclear.

Special police forces were called to the scene around 10 a.m. after "an unknown man entered the building of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, took out an object looking like an explosive device from his pocket, and threatened to detonate it,"police said.

Klymenko said the suspect threatened two security guards and a government administration employee.

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