Armed militants attack election commission in Artemivsk

On Tuesday gunmen disarmed the security guard for the district election commission in Artemivsk [Donetsk oblast].  They smashed up the premises and stole both documents and some personal items belonging to members of the District Election Commission [DEC].

Witnesses say that the gunmen in camouflage gear and balaclavas, holding automatic rifles, burst into the city council building where the DEC is located.

One of the commission members reports that the gunmen were extremely aggressive, forced the committee members out of the premises, making them stand with their faces to the wall and threatening them with their rifles. He adds that they took all the commission’s documentation, including some of the stamps for precinct commissions that they hadn’t had a chance to hand out.  Some of his colleagues also noticed that some personal items were missing.

One of the witnesses also says that the gunmen checked them all, and took women’s bags away from them, so that they couldn’t take anything out.

The Donetsk regional branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU] points out that this is just the latest of a number of such attacks.

Information from an UNIAN report