Law enforcement officials in Ukraine said on July 4 they would release two activists who had been detained three days earlier for allegedly desecrating an eternal flame at a World War II veterans memorial in downtown Kyiv by frying eggs over it.
Officials stressed, however, that the activists will be ordered by a travel ban to stay put in Ukraine as the investigation continues.
The police said a third suspected participant was released under a travel ban on July 2.
The activists had acted in solidarity with Anna Sinkova, who was arrested in March by law enforcement for frying eggs and sausages over the eternal flame at Kyiv’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Dec. 16.
Sinkova says she was protesting against the monument to a totalitarian Soviet regime and trying to draw the public’s attention to the problems of war veterans.
After spending three months in pre-trial detention, she was released on June 30 under a travel ban pending trial.
The Kharkiv Human Rights Group submitted a report on Sinkova to the European Court of Human Rights, raising concerns about political persecution and illegal detention.
“All the young people detained confessed to the crime and explained that they did so in support of Anna Sinkova,” the police said in the statement.
A video tape showing the three activists frying eggs over the monument can be seen on YouTube.
One of them, Kyrylo Babentsov, is a spokesperson for the right-wing Svoboda political movement.
Another, Bohdan Tytsky, is a member of a less-known movement called the Black Committee.
The third activist arrested this month is Oleksandr Lazarenko.
