KHERSON, May 10, /ITAR-TASS/. Kherson region governor Yuri Odarchenko caused public resentment at a Victory Day meeting on Friday when he called Hitler "a liberator" and (Soviet leader Joseph) Stalin "a tyrant," Korrespondent.net reported.

"If you read history, we see that he (Hitler) brought to the forefront the slogan urging to liberate people from Communist yoke, to free people from tyrant Stalin," said the official, a member of the Batkivshchina Party, according to the report. A woman then ran up to Odarchenko, and, calling him "faschist," threw away his microphone towards a group of World War II veterans.

The governor walked to the other side of the platform and continued his speech as police officers edged the woman out.

Next, an elderly man approached the official, and called him "faschist," too, while trying to snatch his microphone. The police protected the governor who went on delivering his address to the heckling and whistling angry crowd.