KIEV, Ukraine, Nov. 22 (UPI) — Protesters vandalized several offices in Kiev, Ukraine, in a pro-Ukrainian, anti-Russian demonstration, police said.
The unidentified group threw smoke flares, broke windows and started a fire Monday at a downtown Kiev building where the office of Viktor Medvedchuck, Ukrainian envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, is located. The organization includes representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and was formed to find a diplomatic resolution to the pro-Russian uprising in eastern Ukraine.
The protesters also attacked a nearby office of Sberbank, a Russian bank. The Russian news service Tass said they “smashed windows and counter windows, broke a door, and even tried to break open a cash dispenser,” citing Strana.ua, a Ukrainian news website. Tass added the demonstrators set fire to a beauty parlor, mistaking it for an office of the pro-Russian Ukrainian Choice movement.
The incidents came on the third anniversary of protests in Kiev which led, three months later, to what has become known as the Euromaidan Revolution, and the overthrow of the pro-Russian Ukrainian government. After Monday’s events, areas of downtown Kiev were cordoned off by police, with mass rallies and marches scheduled.
