Russian terror operation targets Ukraine’s police, minister says
Ihor Klymenko (Photo: National Police / Facebook)
Ukraine is going through an “active phase” of terror
attacks targeting law enforcement orchestrated by Russian security services,
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Feb. 23.
The minister was speaking at a press briefing after two apparent terrorist acts targeted police officers in Mykolaiv and Dnipro in a span of several hours.
Klymenko said the attacks follow a repeated pattern: callers dial emergency numbers and falsely report that someone is being beaten so police will respond quickly.
“Police response time has fallen to 10 minutes; the perpetrators wait for the officers to arrive,” Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne quoted the minister.
“We find phones at the scenes that recorded the incidents.”
The Internal Ministry will develop a new algorithm for how officers respond to calls under these circumstances, Klymenko said. The plan will be discussed with Ukraine’s SBU security service and the Prosecutor General’s Office before being put into practice.
“Our personnel will need appropriate technical resources, canine units, and explosive ordnance technicians,” Klymenko added.
“We will also review the procedures for receiving and analyzing citizens’ reports.”
Besides the two explosions earlier the same day, the official stated that in recent days police officers were facing credible threats on four occasions in Kyiv, three times in Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr oblasts each, and twice in Kharkiv Oblast.
He said Russia offers payment to willing perpetrators,
although they rarely receive it because most of these plots rarely come to
fruition. Klymenko also said Russian operatives are recruiting children;
authorities have recorded 122 cases in which minors received messages urging
them to set cars on fire or carry out other attacks.
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