A criminal investigation has been opened into scuffles and brawls that occurred near the Glory Memorial in Kharkiv on Monday morning.
“This information has been included in the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations based on the ‘hooliganism’ article of Ukraine’s Penal Code. This article entails penalties of a custodial restraint of up to five years,” the press service of the Ukrainian National Police branch for the Kharkiv region has said.
One police officer was injured as a result of the incident, the press service said, adding that he suffered a minor injury to his face.
It was reported that a series of scuffles over St. George ribbons erupted during an official flower-laying ceremony at the Glory Memorial in Kharkiv.
In a separate development, as Andriy Lesyk, the Vidrodzhennia party’s MP of the Kharkiv city council and a member of the Ukrainian Choice organization, put flowers at Kharkiv’s Motherland statue, a scuffle broke out over a St. George ribbon attached to his clothes. Representatives of patriotic organizations tore off a flag of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, after which a brawl began.
