The Security Service of Ukraine, the nation’s intelligence agency, has its white mini-van back, courtesy of the Berkut anti-riot police officers.
Demonstrators seized the van during a protest rally on the evening of Nov. 25, suspecting that it contained sophisticated equipment for eavesdropping on telephone conversations of protest leaders.
The taking of the van prompted clashes last night between police and protesters. After a 30-minute standoff, punctuated by fighting, the demonstrators recovered evidence from the van and the police reclaimed it.
Opposition lawmaker Mykola Kniazhytsky posted a picture of a passport, car tag numbers and what he said were technical listening devises found in the van on his Facebook page. Opposition leaders promised to analyze the recordings and release their findings.
Equipment believed to be listening devices found in the white mini-van that
SBU officers were using while parked near European Square.
That left officials trying to explain what the van was doing at the protest site.
Kyiv’s Interior Ministry said they received an emergency call alleging that the van of the SBU, as the intelligence agency is known, was mined with an explosive device. It would be ironic, since the SBU said the van’s purpose at the rally was to check for bombs. However, in a separate statement, the SBU on Nov. 26 said their officers were using equipment inside the van to check for radio channels that could be used to set off a bomb in the crowd. They also said that five agents were working inside.
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