You're reading: Two Lenin monuments toppled in Kharkiv

Unidentified people wearing camouflaged uniforms and having their faces covered tore down two monuments to Vladimir Lenin in Kharkiv in the early hours on April 18.

The video of the demolition of the two monuments has been posted online. Subtitles attached to the video say that the monuments were located on the grounds of the National Aerospace University ‘Kharkiv Aviation Institute’ and the National Technical University ‘Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute.’

It was reported earlier from Kharkiv that unidentified people had demolished monuments to the Soviet statesman Sergo Ordzhonikidze located near the tractor plant, to the Russian revolutionary and Civil War participant Nikolai Rudnev on the square named after him, and to All-Russian Central Executive Committee Chairman Yakov Sverdlov on Poltavsky Shliakh Street. All these incidents took place in the early hours of April 11.

A video available online shows men in sports and camouflaged uniforms, nearly all of them with their faces covered, tear down the three monuments one after another by attaching one end of a cable to a monument and the other to a van. The video showing the demolition of the monument to Nikolai Rudnev also shows policemen appearing at the scene but not preventing the men’s actions.

Police have opened criminal proceedings into all the three incidents under Ukrainian Criminal Code Article 296, Part 2 (disorderly conduct committed by a group of people).