KHARKIV, February 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Residents in north-east Ukraine's KharkIv region have pledged to protect historic monuments to revolutionary party leader Vladimir Lenin from being demolished, local news organisations said, reflecting comments from Communist party activist Alla Aleksandrovskaya.

Locals moved to defend the statues after radicals tried to destroy a Lenin monument in the regional administrative center Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, on February 23.

Local law enforcers are ensuring the safekeeping of such sites, which Kharkiv city councellor Aleksei Khoroshkovaty said numbered about 100.