Ukraine's Jewish Committee on Friday condemned a Ukrainian nationalist rally in central Kyiv the evening before that involved the burning of a piece of cloth with the Israeli and Russian flags painted on it.
"We urge the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies – the Security Service, the Ministry of the Interior and the Office of the Prosecutor General – to take the investigation of this crime under strict control and punish those guilty. We believe that the Ukrainian government must take all possible measures to prevent new incidents of this kind," the committee said in a statement.
The committee branded the act by the Patriot of Ukraine non-governmental organization as "a provocation by a group of extremists [who,] under the pretext of the celebration of a historical event, committed a crime whose purpose was to destabilize the situation in the country, fan ethnic hostility, and propagandize fascist ideas."
Patriot of Ukraine’s website said the reason for the rally was an anniversary of the start of the haidamak movement, an 18th-century paramilitary movement against Polish nobility in Ukraine.
One of the rally participants set fire to a piece of cloth on which the Israeli and Russian flags were painted on while one of the rally organizers stood by and encouraged him, Interfax was told at the Kyiv police authority.
The two men struggled with police who were trying to detain them, the authorities said. They were detained but released after being fined.
