KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th March, 2019) The number of police officers who have been injured in clashes with nationalists in the Ukrainian city of Cherkasy, located some 118 miles to the southeast of Kiev, has reached 22, and most of them have been hospitalized, the country's Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
The clashes erupted on Saturday, when members of the National Corps party tried to break through to Ukrainian President Petro Porosheko, who was speaking at a local rally. Initial reports indicated that 15 police officers were injured while trying to hold back the nationalists.
"As of 10:00 a.m. [08:00 GMT], 22 police officers who have sustained injuries during the clashes in Cherkasy went to the hospital. Nineteen of them are hospitalized," the ministry tweeted.
On Saturday, the National Corps and other nationalists held a rally in Independence Square in downtown Kiev, which resulted in clashes with police as well, amid the embezzlement scandal that rocked the country's defense sector in late February.
The Bihus.info journalistic investigation website claims that several officials close to the Ukrainian president have embezzled over $9 million from Ukrainian state-owned concern Ukroboronprom by reselling spare parts for military equipment to Ukrainian defense enterprises at inflated prices after allegedly smuggling the parts from Russia or purchasing them from Ukrainian military units.
As many as 480 criminal cases have been launched in relation to the scandal.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin had no information about any smuggling of military vehicle parts from Russia to Ukraine, refuting such allegations as absurd.
