Donbass News Summary, 6 March 2014

In the morning of 6 March 2014, a number of sources reported the arrest of Pavel Gubarev, leader of Donestk separatists.

Citing a bomb threat, the police blocked a pedestrian underground subway near Donetsk State Administration building. Later the information about the bomb was not confirmed.

Representatives of law-enforcement authorities spent the morning fortifying the territory around the building with the help of specialised equipment, while communal services were engaged in a clean-up outside and inside the building.

Sergey Taruta, head of Donetsk State Administration, commented on the situation with the seizure of the building that took place twice in the recent days. He believed the responsibility for the building's seizure lay, among others, on the region's senior law-enforcement officials, who failed to properly react to the situation or, indeed, take preventive measures.

In the afternoon a Party of the Regions MP, Nikolay Levchenko, appeared in front of the State Administration building. “I do not want us to split and leave the Russian Kiev, which will be overtaken by nationalists.” - he said. Levchenko was confronted by a group of Donetsk residents opposing the country's authorities in Kiev. They asked him provocative questions, threw rubbish at him and shouted “Shame!”. Levchenko tried to explain to the crowd the party's plan of actions now when Yanukovych was ousted and escaped to Russia.

In the evening of 6 March 2014, it was reported that the separatist leader Gubarev had been indeed detained by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Official information was provided by the SBU Press service and confirmed in an unofficial video footage of the arrest. Law-enforcement officials announced that the self-proclaimed “governor” of Donbass was arrested at his home address on the grounds of a court order. A criminal investigation against Gubarev was opened on the basis of part 1 article 109 of the Criminal Code (actions aimed at a violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order, or seizure of state power), part 2 article 110 (incitement to violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity and inviolability), and article 341 (seizure of state or public buildings).

After Gubarev's arrest, around two hundred people staged a rally in his support near the SBU building. They demanded his immediate release. An SBU official addressed the protesters and informed them that Gubarev had been transferred to Kiev.