Kyiv, July 5 (EFE).- A man facing terrorism charges for a deadly 2015 attack outside Ukraine’s parliament died here Wednesday after setting off explosives inside a court building, the Interior Ministry said.
Two police officers were wounded in the blast.
Ihor Humeniuk detonated explosive devices inside the Shevchenkivskyi District Court as part of an escape attempt, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
The defendant set off the first device to get away from the two officers who escorted him to the bathroom at the conclusion of the hearing, but other police prevented him from leaving the building and he fell back before hurling other devices at the officers.
The explosions resulted in the death of Humeniuk and left the two escort officers injured.
An investigation is under way to determine how Humeniuk obtained the explosives and brought them into the courthouse, the Interior Ministry said.
Humeniuk, long active in far-right circles, took part in the Maidan movement that led to the toppling of President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 and went on to fight in the Donbas against the ethnic-Russian militias that proclaimed the region’s independence from the new government in Kyiv.
He was jailed in 2015 for throwing a grenade at the parliament building during a protest against a bill that would have granted a degree of autonomy to the Donbas.
The explosion killed four members of Ukraine’s National Guard and 140 other people were wounded. EFE mg/dr
