Anniversary of Euromaidan: Clashes with police and detention of military chiefs
On Sunday, February 19, one police officer has been injured and five people, including OUN Battalion chief Mykola Kokhanivsky, have been detained during clashes in the center of Kyiv on the occasion of the the Euromaidan anniversary.
"Five people have been detained, one policeman has seriously been injured," chief of the Kyiv police office Andriy Kryshchenko has said. Protesters who wanted to gather outside the Presidential Administration building on Bankova Street demand suspending trade with occupied areas in Donbas.
Clashes between police and protesters broke out on neighboring Instytutska Street on Sunday evening. Member of Parliament Semen Semenchenko, who supports the trade blockade, explained that the incident had ben caused by the fact that riot police did not let him, other MPs, including Yehor Sobolev, and protesters, move farther to the Presidential Administration along Instytutska Street.
Sobolev also suffered from a punch in the face. The police cordoned off the site with wire mesh. Some witnesses said they had heard explosions of either firecrackers or smoke-puff charges.
Hromadske TV reported that participants in the rally had thrown firecrackers at police officers and tried to break through the mesh fence to the presidential administration's building. Police said that 6,500 officers were involved in keeping law and order in the city on February 19 amid public events devoted to the third anniversary of the Revolution of Dignity and in commemoration of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes killed during Euromaidan protests three years ago.
Source: UNIAN