Ukraine's capital might be far from the war zone, but it still has an increasing number of bomb threats to contend with. Since the beginning of the year, there have been 225 bomb alerts in Kyiv, and the majority of them in July and August. During the week ending Aug. 14, police were alerted 18 times, according to the Interior Ministry.
Such threats, even empty, are draining the city’s resources, stressful for many of the three million metropolitan area residents and damaging for business — more so because they frequently affect shopping malls and other public places. Every threat is tackled as real.
“Since it’s impossible to verify a call, the police patrol arrives in about two minutes and acts as if there is 100 percent certainty of a bomb,” says Olha Bilyk, Kyiv police spokeswoman. “At every briefing our chief emphasizes that we have to work and react fully to every event, no matter how long this will last and how many calls we receive.”
After each call, a group of 30 people is dispatched from various departments, including a bomb squad, dog handlers, regular patrol and investigators. If emergencies services and ambulances are also dispatched, the cost of each call can reach Hr 30,000, according to the government’s estimates.
The police force is stretched and forced to adapt.
“We have re-formatted police patrols, so that they spend more time among the people. We have increased the number of patrols and changed their routes to ensure they pass by the malls and crowded locations more frequently. We are tracking down those who have weapons or explosives and confiscate them, meeting with people who had previously been sentenced for similar crimes. Another important step is instructing and conducting briefings for the security services on identifying suspicious persons and acting in case of danger,” Bilyk says.
The police has tracked down eight phone hooligans and opened 71 criminal cases as of Aug.1. Some calls were made from the country’s warring east, but it’s impossible to arrest the callers there even if and when they are identified.
Kyiv police says it’s difficult to determine the motives of those who make the calls until the criminals are identified. But military expert Oleksiy Melnik of Razumkov Center says this is a common terrorist tactic.
“Since the very beginning of the conflict in the east of Ukraine, the militants have been using elements of terroristic tactics: intimidation of people, damaging strategic objects, and these phone calls are another part of the terrorist activity,” Melnyk says.
He says that the purpose of such calls is to destabilize the capital and spread fear among the population. But there is also a high risk of a real terrorist attack, Melnyk says.
Most frequently, callers identify government buildings, malls, subway and media offices as bomb targets. Channel 5, which is owned by President Petro Poroshenko, has received six warnings so far. US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other TV channels have also received warnings.
“It was more funny than scary,” says Irtsia Stelmakh, a journalist of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “We have a perfect security system and it’s pretty difficult to enter the building. In order to get to the newsroom, for example, you need to pass through turnstiles, elevators and have magnetic cards to open the doors.” Stelmakh says.
But regardless of security measures, the staff were forced to evacuate once they received a warning. Stelmakh tries to find the bright side in it, too. “So it was a kind of compliment. They seem to only bomb-(scare) the good media,” she says.
It’s harder for shop owners at Ocean Plaza to brush it off, though, because they encounter significant losses. They have had five bomb alerts in the past few weeks. Although the mall administration does not comment on the issue, shop assistance do talk informally about the cost of such alerts.
Maryna, a shop assistant who declined to give her last name because she is not authorized to make comments for the media, said that her haberdashery store lost up to Hr 20,000 in income so far.
“Afternoons are the most popular shopping time so if a call is received at the lunchtime the sales are almost wasted,” she says. The clients, however, return quickly as soon as the mall is checked and the doors reopen.
The police says if there is even a whiff of a bomb threat, people should not hesitate to dial 102. They warn to never attempt to look for a bomb, and start evacuating immediately. Stay calm and help children and other people who need assistance.
Kyiv Post staff writer Maryna Lysytsia can be reached at [email protected].
