The first deaths occurred on Unity Day, 22 January 2014, during riots on Hrushevskoho Street in Kyiv, where 3 Euromaidan activists were shot dead. On the same day, a dead body of another Euromaidan activist was found on the outskirts of the city; he was kidnapped a day before with Ihor Lutsenko, who was released. These were the first victims to die in demonstrations in Ukraine since gaining national independence in 1991. The deaths caused widespread protests across the country. On 23 January 2014, then Prime Minister Mykola Azarov in an interview with BBC said that police had not been issued firearms, and said no police officers were located on the rooftops around the protest area. He stated that the shooting of protesters was a provocation by extremist forces aimed at escalating violence. Party of Regions MP Arsen Klinchayev stated during a memorial service in Luhansk for those killed on 22 January by police, "These people were against the government. Nobody has the right to use physical force against police officers. And then they have their sticks, then stones, then something else. The police have the right to defend their lives. So I think it's right that these four people were killed. Moreover, I believe that you need to be stricter."