Sixty National Guard servicemen were hurt in clashes between followers of the Movement of New Forces' leader Mikheil Saakashvili and law enforcers in front of the October Palace in Kyiv on Sunday, and 15 of them were hospitalized.
The most affected - due to poisoning with gas, reports DW.
"Sixty National Guard servicemen were injured in the clashes. Ambulance vehicles were rushed to the location. Forty-five servicemen continued to perform their duties after receiving medical aid, and 15 had to be hospitalized, including 13 poisoned with gas, one with a facial trauma, and one with a head trauma (a thunder-flash was tossed into his winter jacket's hood, yet the individual protection means and the helmet prevented bigger injuries," the statement said.
About 1,000 servicemen of the Ukrainian National Police and the Ukrainian National Guard were providing law and order in the center of Kyiv on December17 evening.
The protesters were hurling fire crackers near the Cultural Center on the Alley of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred (former Instytutska Street in downtown Kyiv); they tried to break inside the palace, clashed with the police, and did damage to the building's door, the spokesman said. "There were about 800 spectators, including children, inside the building at the moment. The protesters tried to break into the lobby," the statement said.
Three criminal cases were opened after those events.
