A Ukrainian local councilor set off hand grenades at a meeting. The attack was captured on video and left 26 people injured, the country's national police said Friday. The incident occurred on Friday morning at the headquarters of the Keretsky village council in the mountainous Zakarpattia region of western Ukraine.
A video posted by police on Facebook showed a man dressed in black entering a council meeting during a heated discussion. The faces of the man and others in the meeting are blurred in the clip.
A Ukrainian village council set off hand grenades at a meeting, injuring 26 people, national police said on Friday. The attack was captured on video. National Police of Ukraine
The man then pulled three hand grenades from his pockets, unclipped the safety pins and dropped them to the ground, setting off explosions as rally participants screamed.
“As a result, 26 people were injured, six of whom are in a serious condition,” the police statement said, adding that medics were trying to revive the man who threw the grenades.
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Police said the Ukrainian Secret Service (SBU) had opened a terrorism investigation. Police also launched an investigation into illegal arms trafficking.
The video released by police comes from a live video stream of the meeting that the city council posted on social media. It showed the man walking into the debate for more than an hour and a half, briefly standing at the door before taking the grenades from his pockets.
Then there was chaos in the small room, which became dark and filled with smoke and injured people lay on the floor.
Authorities did not name the man, but the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reported that he was identified as Serhiy Batryn, a parliamentarian who is a member of President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People party.
A woman watching the live broadcast of the council meeting reported the explosion to authorities, Ukraine's Pravda reported.
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