Ukrainian military reported attempted seizure of military compound in Odessa
On Sunday, October 29, forty people in balaclavas tried to raid and seize the military unit A3571 in Odessa, the command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on Facebook.
"Today, at about 8:45 a.m., about 40 unknown people in balaclavas attempted to capture part of the territory of the military facility in Odessa, which is the property of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine," the message of the Ukrainian military command says.
The attackers partially dismantled the fence of the compound and removed military property. "The attackers have not been identified but it’s known that they "positioned themselves as representatives of the shopping and entertainment Citi Center.”
The head of the press center of the Ukrainian Air Force command, Roman Yurchylo said that no documents are available that permit this organization to carry out any activities on the territory of this military facility.
The military law enforcement service, military prosecutor's office of the Southern region of Ukraine and representatives of the South Air Command of the Air Force of Ukraine started investigation of the incident .
Meanwhile, adviser to the head of the National Police of the Odessa region, Ruslan Forostyak, went on 112 Ukraine TV and denied the military’s version of events. "We really received a report concerning these events. The investigative and operational group and representatives of the police moved to the incident location and it turned out that the construction work that they were talking about was conducted near the military unit borders.”
"The builder has all the necessary documents and permissions. In addition, after studying the materials from the surveillance cameras and the witnesses’ statements, it turned out that these were not ‘outlaws’ or unidentified persons in balaclavas, but ordinary construction workers who had equipped their fence,” he said.
In addition, Forostyak said that from the territory that was located outside the military unit, construction garbage, not military property was removed. According to the police representative, the construction is legal, because it is located on the land that the local authorities have transferred to the developer for the hypermarket.