Bomb kills marchers in Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine – A bomb apparently hidden in a thin layer of snow exploded Sunday during a pro-Ukraine march in the eastern industrial city of Kharkiv, killing at least two people and wounding 11, authorities said.

Four suspected perpetrators of the attack were detained later in the day, Alexander Turchinov, secretary of the National Defense and Security Council, told the UNIAN news agency. He said the detainees had been trained in the Russian town of Belgorod.

The bomb exploded shortly after 1 p.m. along the route where hundreds of people marched, many waving Ukrainian national flags, as part of a nationwide memorial to protesters who died a year ago during the Maidan revolution in Kiev that ousted Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovich, said Anton Gerashchenko, an Interior Ministry adviser.

Kharkiv is the capital of the Kharkiv region, which borders Russia and the Donetsk region of Ukraine, which for over 10 months has been the heart of an armed conflict between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russia separatists reportedly armed and aided by Russia.

One of the two killed in the bombing was a prominent local activist and the other a high-ranking police officer, Gerashchenko said. Five police officers were among the wounded, he said.