Twin extortion bombings in Kharkiv supermarkets injured at least eight people and exposed a blackmail scheme demanding $50,000 per target.
Key Facts
- Date
- 22 April 2006
- Number of bombs
- 2
- Total injured
- At least 8 people
- Blackmail demand per supermarket
- 50,000 USD
- Time between blasts
- 8 minutes
- Perpetrators
- 2 individuals, at least 1 arrested
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Two individuals sought to extort money from supermarket businesses in Kharkiv, demanding US$50,000 from each establishment. They constructed homemade bombs and planted them as a coercive instrument to compel payment, targeting two separate supermarkets approximately one kilometer apart.
Around noon on 22 April 2006, two homemade bombs detonated in Kharkiv supermarkets. The first exploded in the YuSI supermarket, injuring at least two people; eight minutes later, a second device detonated in the Silpo supermarket, injuring at least six more people.
At least eight people were injured across the two blasts. Ukrainian authorities investigated the incidents and arrested at least one of the two perpetrators responsible for organizing the bombings as part of the blackmail scheme.