Ukrainian detectives given access to U.S. Embassy premises to investigate overnight blast

Ukrainian law enforcement officers investigating a terrorist act staged near the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv overnight into Thursday have already been granted access to the grounds of the diplomatic mission, Anton Gerashchenko, a People's Front faction deputy and an advisor to the Ukrainian interior minister, said.

"Half an hour ago, specialists were allowed to enter the embassy's premises, because it is regarded as U.S. territory, in order to collect CCTV recordings that were filmed there in cooperation with the embassy's security service. CCTV recordings will also be collected from all over the surrounding area in order to establish how these people approached the embassy, in what cars, etc," Gerashchenko said on his Facebook account on Thursday.

Gerashchenko blamed the Russian side for this incident near the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.

"The goal was very simple. It is a good pretext to stir up the information space, make it to the headlines on possibly global newswires and say that it is unsafe in Kyiv. I do not see any other motives," he said.

It was reported that Kyiv's police were alerted at 00:05 a.m. on June 8 about an explosion on the grounds of the U.S. Embassy. It was established during an examination that an unknown person had thrown an unidentified explosive device onto the diplomatic mission's premises. No one was hurt in the blast.

A criminal investigation has been launched on the count of a terrorist act under Ukraine's Penal Code following the incident.

The police said that all of the collected materials would be forwarded to the Prosecutor's Office and the Ukrainian Security Service would be in charge of this inquiry.