Unidentified people blew up a monument to Stalin at around 2330 in Zaporizhia on the territory of the regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, members of nationalist Svoboda party suspected.
The regional committee’s building was also damaged. The blast blew off the windows’ glass and facing, the main department of the regional branch of the Interior Ministry told Interfax-Ukraine.
No casualties have been reported.
Following the blast, police detained head of Zaporizhia branch of Svoboda All-Ukrainian Association Vitaliy Podlobnikov and his deputy Yuriy Hudymenko on suspicion of blowing up a monument to Stalin in Zaporizhia on the New Year’s Eve, the party’s press service reported.
The press service noted that at around 0100 on January 1, policemen broke into the apartment of the deputy chairman of Zaporizhia branch of Svoboda Association in charge of youth issues, Yuriy Hudymenko. He was taken to a district police department.
Around 0900 the police detained the head of Zaporizhia branch of Svoboda, Vitaliy Podlobnikov.
They were detained on suspicion of blowing up a monument to Stalin in Zaporizhia on the New Year’s night and charged with an offence under Part 2 of Article 192 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the press service said.
In addition, Svoboda said that lawyers are not allowed to the detainees.
On December 28, the monument to Stalin, erected in May 2010 on the territory of the regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine in Zaporizhia, was beheaded. None of the nationalist organizations in Ukraine took responsibility for this incident.
