Ukraine ex-minister injured in clashes

Overnight clashes between protesters and riot police in the Ukrainian capital Kiev have left several people, including former interior minister and leading opposition figure Yuriy Lutsenko, wounded.

The scuffles broke out on Monday night outside a district court after it sentenced three demonstrators to six years in prison on terrorism charges.

Following the judgment, angry protestors blocked buses carrying police officers. The situation escalated after demonstrators threw paint on the windscreens and started rocking the vehicles.

The defendants were accused of plotting to blow up a statue of the revolutionary Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in 2011.

The activists are members of a far-right organization and have had an active role in the recent demonstrations in Ukraine.

The country is experiencing its most widespread unrest since the 2004-2005 Western-sponsored Orange Revolution.

Protests were triggered in Kiev after President Victor Yanukovych decided to scrap a partnership deal with the European Union at the third Eastern Partnership Summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, on November 29.

Kiev refused to sign the agreement after EU leaders called on Ukraine to allow jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymshenko to travel overseas for medical treatment.

European Union leaders have blamed Russia for Ukraine’s refusal to sign the deal with the union, saying they will not allow Moscow to “veto” deals in Eastern Europe.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Western countries are losing “their sense of reality” over Ukraine’s crisis. He has also charged them with using blackmail to cut Kiev off from Russia.

YH/HMV

Source Article from http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/01/11/344956/ukraine-exminister-injured-in-clashes/

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