Protesters led by members of a prominent right-wing Ukrainian political group clashed with riot police near the offices of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, injuring at least eight police officers.
The August 14 violence came during a rally organized by the National Corps, which was protesting a plan known as the Steinmeier Formula aimed at resolving the seven-year war that has pit Kremlin-backed separatists against Ukrainian troops and killed more than 13,000 people.
Police said the violence erupted when demonstrators tried to break through a police cordon, and police responded with tear gas.
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Police Clash With Protesters Near President’s Office In Kyiv
Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy said eight officers were injured. Zelenskiy was not in the offices at the time of the clash.
"The constitution guarantees the right to peaceful protests. Everyone who had undergone basic checks would have been allowed to enter the square in front of the president's office," he said in a post on Facebook.
The National Corps is a political organization that grew out of a notorious militia known as the Azov Batalion, which played a key role in defending the port city of Mariupol in the early days of the war in eastern Ukraine.
Azov, which has been formally incorporated into the official National Guard, was kicked off of Facebook in 2019 for its neo-Nazi rhetoric, and the National Corps was labeled a "nationalist hate group" by the U.S. State Department in 2018.