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Ukrainian police launches investigation into demolition of Lenin’s monument in Kiev

KIEV, December 08, 22:42 /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s police has launched a probe into the demolition of the monument to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in the centre of the Ukrainian capital city Kiev on Sunday, the press service of the Ukrainian interior ministry said.

Ukraine’s current laws envisage responsibility for intentional destruction or damage to property and for blatant violation of public order, the press service said.

According to the police, the incident took place on Sunday evening. A group of men wearing masks and waving flags of the nationalist party Svoboda (Liberty) threw the monument off its pedestal using ropes. “Later on, these aggressively behaving people began to lit flares and throw smoke bombs near the monument,” the ministry said.

The Communist Party of Ukraine has already condemned this incident. According to one of the party leaders and member of the national parliament Alexander Golub, the Communist faction will raise the issue of calling those behind the monument’s demolition to responsibility at a Verkhovna Rada (parliament) session. “It is absolutely obvious now that a ban on pro-Fascist organizations is ripe,” he added.

According to eyewitnesses, the masked men tied a metal rope around the statue’s head and pulled the monument off its pedestal. After that, they mauled it with hammers.

Meanwhile, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Kharkov region Mikhail Dobykin said he planned to open an account to raise money to restore Lenin’s monument in Kiev.

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