An elderly woman and three men were hospitalized with injuries after clashes outside the Kharkiv City Council on Dec. 24, according to the council.
A statement from the council quoted hospital director Olena Kovaliova as saying the three men had injuries “that are clearly too serious for outpatient treatment.” “We will know what condition they are in after the examinations are over,” she said.
The violence broke out after demonstrators made repeated but unsuccessful attempts to breach police cordons and get into the City Council room where the council was holding a session.
When police were pushing protesters away from a side door through which they were trying to get inside the building, several female activists fell over, and an ambulance was called in for one of them, who was very elderly.
Demonstrators also came to blows with the bodyguards of council deputies, and threw a deputy representing the Party of Regions, Volodymyr Skorobohach, into a refuse bin, poured bright green-colored antiseptic fluid over him and hurled eggs at him.
Later a source said Skorobohach had ended up with cornea burns. “He has cornea burns. It’s unclear how serious they are,” the source told Interfax, adding that one of the bodyguards had a cranial fracture.
