A total of 169 people have been arrested and 39 people injured as a result of an attempt to seize the Tavria cognac plant in Nova Kakhovka, Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has said.
He said in Kyiv on Friday that 39 people had been hospitalized with various injuries as a result of the raider attack on the plant. Lutsenko said that the victims also included two police officers who suffered gunshot wounds.
Police also arrested 169 people involved in the clash, he said.
“One hundred and sixty-nine people have been arrested, and they are currently being held at various police departments. Of these, 116 have been identified. All of them had been members of a certain security agency but are currently jobless,” Lutsenko said.
He said that these people had been hired and paid $50-100 each.
The prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case on the seizure of administrative buildings.
Lutsenko said that at around 2015 on Thursday, police had been informed that unknown individuals were trying to access the territory of the cognac plant. The police said that after arriving at the scene, 80 people aged between 25 and 35 had come to the plant on three Neoplan buses, with steel reinforcement bars, beams, sharp instruments, two guns with rubber bullets, as well as helmets, elbow pads, and other means of protection.
He said that for an hour, police officers tried to “separate the sides,” as there were around 1,000 employees of the plant present as well.
“A brawl erupted, and an alarm was given to call the whole staff of Nova Kakhovka police department, around 150 people,” Lutsenko said.
He said that this had been the “biggest raider attack since the times of attacks made on the Odesa ports.”
“This raider attack was well organized, and we’re currently investigating who organized it,” Lutsenko said.
