January 28: TIMER managed to learn some details of the special operation conducted by the SBU in the Lotus residential complex on Grushevskogo Street.
According to residents of the complex, SBU officers arrived at the residential complex, a place inhabited by residents of the Vietnamese diaspora, about 5:00. In their hands were some papers — presumably a court order to conduct a search. However, since most of the “defendants” are representatives of the Vietnamese diaspora and don’t understand much Russian, it was impossible for them to know what was in the documents.
During the raid at least one person was injured: a man named Man Hong Vinh who tried to escape from the SBU officers, but was caught, beaten and handcuffed. According to the man, they confiscated 800 thousand hryvnia. He says that he saw armed men and decided they were bandits who came to rob the money, so he tried to escape.
Another resident of the complex, in an apartment that was searched, claims that during the SBU’s visit he was not at home: he sells jeans at the market “7-km” and learned about what was happening while he was at work. He immediately went home, but not in time — on arrival he found a demolished door. Whether anything went missing during the search, he was not yet sure.
According to the TIMER correspondent, in addition to soldiers in camouflage uniforms with the inscription of the SBU and investigators, there was also a group of young men in camouflage uniforms on site. They also claimed to be the employees of the SBU, but did not have any documents.
The atmosphere on the scene is very hot: representatives of the Vietnamese diaspora accused the SBU of arbitrariness, and communication between the parties was hampered by the language barrier. In particular, residents of the housing complex literally forced the men in camouflage out through the front, because they did not want to let in the notorious young people [the men in camouflage, likely members of fascist ‘volunteer battalions’].
To defuse the situation and to clarify what is happening, employees of the Consulate of Vietnam in Ukraine have been dispatched to the scene.
We are monitoring the situation.
Translated by Greg Butterfield
Red Star News + Translations 