Defenders of Lenin monument in Kharkiv hold picket near Kharkiv City Council
KHARKIV. Feb 26 (Interfax) - A picket in defense of the Lenin monument in Kharkiv is being held in front of the building of the Kharkiv City Council, were members of the city council are having a meeting.
Among the protesters are activists of the Ukrainian Communist Party, the public organization Working Kharkiv Region, Cossacks, and people in Soviet military uniform, an Interfax correspondent has reported. The protesters are holding banners saying, "People of Kharkiv, don't let your city be destroyed!" "Banderovtsy, remember: Kharkiv is not your territory!", and "Vandals, hands off Kharkiv!"
The protesters are comparing the current events in Ukraine to the events that occurred in 1941. They are chanting "Hands off Lenin!" and "Defend our Kharkiv!"
On February 22, Euromaidan activists voted for the monument to be dismantled. Ivan Varchenko, a member of the region's council of the party Batkivshchina, convinced the protesters to do that after the parliament adopted a statement on the dismantling of Communist symbols in Ukraine on Tuesday.
On February 23, residents of Kharkiv came to the monument to protest its dismantling. They put a fence around it, washed off the words written by Euromaidan activists on it, and organized round-the-clock security there.
On February 24, the Euromaidan Coordination Council in Kharkiv said it had given up the idea to begin dismantling the Lenin Monument on the city's Freedom Square on Tuesday, February 25.