Seven policemen injured in riots outside Ukrainian Prosecutor's General Office
KYIV. Sept 17 (Interfax) - Several law enforcement officers have been injured in disturbances at a protest held outside the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office on Monday, Kyiv police said.
"Seven police officers have been injured at a protest outside the Ukrainian Prosecutor's General Office," the Kyiv National Police chief inspectorate wrote on its Facebook page.
The police are urging protesters to voice their stance in a peaceful manner.
The protest is underway outside the Prosecutor's General Office in line with an application filed by a political party with the Kyiv city administration, the chief police inspectorate said.
Protesters have staged a clash with law enforcement officers in an attempt to break into the Prosecutor's General Office, the police said. "During the protest activists have painted the walls of the building, and aggressive protesters tried to break into it, using pepper-spray canisters, that caused a clash with policemen, who have enforced order," the statement said.
Injured policemen first could not have been provided with medical aid due to the presence of people, who have stormed the building, but later protesters have provided the passage for policemen to retreat and for the injured to be provided with aid.
"After that protesters tried to damage the entrance doors of the administrative building, but fire extinguishers were used from inside it. Activists started hurling stones and pebbles," the chief police inspectorate said.
It has previously been reported that activists of the Svoboda party, the National Corps, S14 and other nationalistic organizations are protesting outside the Ukrainian Prosecutor's General Office building in connection with the extradition of a Russian volunteer combatant Timur Tumgoyev, who has fought in Donbas, to Russia.
Protesters are demanding the dismissal of Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General Yevhen Yenin.
Activists have met with the prosecutor general, MP Oksana Korchynska said. "He gives us a guarantee that not a single ATO combatant will be extradited anymore," she said.
Ukraine has extradited Tumgoyev, who has fought in Donbas, to Russia on September 12, an off-faction MP and member of the Ukrainian national association Svoboda, Andriy Ilyenko said. "The Ukrainian side has extradited to Russian law enforcement agencies Timur Tumgoyev, whose extradition the Federal Security Service has demanded. Tumgoyev is an Ingush native, who has fought against the Moscow aggression in Ukraine," he wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.
At the same time, the Ukrainian Prosecutor's General Office has rejected reports that Tumgoyev has been involved in "an anti-terrorist operation" in eastern Ukraine. "While the Ukrainian Prosecutor's General Office has considered his extradition request (over more than two years) we have received no information on his involvement in the ATO or his wish to take part in the ATO, and the defense team has not stated that at all," the Prosecutor's General Office said.
Tumgoyev is accused by Russian law enforcement agencies of membership in an illegal armed group, which was incorporated to the Islamic State group (banned in Russia), and has fought against governmental forces in Syria, the Prosecutor's General Office said. At the same time, the defendant did not conceal his membership in this organization.