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About 30 protesters including grenade thrower detained in Kiev — minister

Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said there will be more detentions
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov Zurab Javakhadze/TASS
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov
© Zurab Javakhadze/TASS

KIEV, August 31 /TASS/ Ukrainian police have detained 30 protesters during a rally outside the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) building in Kiev in which clashes and a grenade explosion took place, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Monday.

"About 90 people were wounded in protests outside the Rada building. Some of them are in grave condition. Several people wearing the Svoboda party (Freedom) tea-shirts threw several grenades and clashed with members of the National Guard movement. The investigation and punishment will be imminent. About 30 protesters have already been detained and detentions will continue. The grenade thrower has been caught. Police have confiscated grenades from him, including the F1 grenade with the maximum destructive force," Avakov wrote on his page in Facebook.

Three journalists have been injured during clashes near the building of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada. A Ukrainian News correspondent reported from the scene that a TSN TV channel cameraman, who got a leg injury, was carried from the site by a bus of the Ukrainian National Guard.

The Channel Five office reported two more journalists have been injured.

"Despite the injuries, the Channel Five crew 5 - reporter Maxim Voloboyev and cameraman Nikolai Lebedev - continue the work in these conditions," the channel’s website reports.

More than 3,000 people opposed to amendments to Ukraine’s constitution set up pickets outside Verkhovna Rada at the time when the deputies were considering the amendments bill earlier on Monday. After that, a protester from the crowd hurled a grenade in the direction of police cordons surrounding the parliament building.

According to some reports, about 100 policemen were injured in the riots.

According to Avakov’s adviser Anton Gerashchenko, some of them are in extremely grave condition.