KIEV, October 14. /TASS/. As many as 15 policemen were injured in clashes in front of the Verkhovna Rada /Ukrainian parliament/ building in central Kiev on Tuesday, adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister Anton Gerashchenko said, adding that police detained 50 rioters.

“Fifteen police officers have been injured as a result of illegal activities of provokers. As many as 50 activists of the provocative actions near the Verkhovna Rada were detained. Police continues to detain /violators of public order/,” he wrote on his Facebook account.

According to Kiev police, up to 8,000 people took part in the action.

Controversial bill causes nationalist rally

Riots started after the Verkhovna Rada refused to put on its agenda a bill recognizing the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) as a party fighting for Ukraine’s independence during WWII. Parliament speaker Olexandr Turchynov, in violation of the established procedures, made seven attempts to put this issue for voting and each time failed to score the required 226 votes.

After that, a group of masked young men with flags of the radical nationalist party Svoboda /Freedom/ began to pick out stone blocks from the pavement and throw them at the parliament building. They threw smoke and sound bombs and explosive device at policemen on duty at the building. Fragments of explosive devices reached as high as the second floor of the building, breaking its windows.

As a result, the parliament session was terminated.

Earlier on Tuesday, Svoboda organized a mach along Kiev’s central streets under slogans “Bandera is Our Hero” and demanding UIA soldiers be recognized as fighters for Ukraine’s independence. On their way to the parliament building, Svoboda activists were joined by National Guard fighters and veterans of OUN /Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists/-UIA.

Ukrainian nationalists during WWII

The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which was founded in 1939 in western Ukraine, during WWII actively collaborated with German invaders. The entire left bank part of Ukraine was declared “a Small Germany”. The OUN was actively used by Germans to fight against Soviet partisans. During the German-Polish war, Ukrainian nationalists played an active role in organizing attacks against the Polish army and punitive operations against the Polish population. In 1943, the OUN was transformed by Germans into the Ukrainian Insurgent Army known for mass killings of civilians. Nationalists planned to win Ukraine with support from Germans and physically eliminate all non-Ukrainians. Their slogan was “Ukraine only for Ukrainians”.

UIA groups fought against Soviet partisans and Polish underground resistance organization members in 1943-44. When the Soviet rule was restored in Ukraine, the UIA organized attacks against Soviet servicemen, law-enforcement authorities, Soviet officials and others who came from the “east”.