Ukrainian Nationalists Hurl Stuffed Pigs At President's Administration In Anti-Graft March

A column of members of Ukraine's far-right National Corps party marched toward the presidential administration in Kiev on Saturday as part of a new rally against corruption in the defense industry, despite the fact that President Petro Poroshenko has been away in the Poltava region, local media reported

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th March, 2019) A column of members of Ukraine's far-right National Corps party marched toward the presidential administration in Kiev on Saturday as part of a new rally against corruption in the defense industry, despite the fact that President Petro Poroshenko has been away in the Poltava region, local media reported.

The marching column was reportedly accompanied by a vehicle with a powerful audio system, which blasted patriotic music, with the participants demanding that top officials linked to Poroshenko and suspected of corruption be put "behind bars."

As a video, published by Strana.ua media outlet, show upon the arrival, the nationalists faced a cordon of police officers around the building. Since they failed to break the cordon, the crowd started hurling stuffed pigs at the administration. Some of the toys hit the security forces. The activists also set up a big slingshot to continue their "shelling." No clashes with the security forces have been reported.

The new rally comes a week after National Corps members tried to break through to Poroshenko, who was speaking at a rally in the central Ukrainian city of Cherkasy. Several police officers were injured while trying to hold back the nationalists.

In late February, the Ukrainian journalistic investigative website Bihus.info reported that several Ukrainian officials close to Poroshenko had defrauded state-run defense company Ukroboronprom of roughly $9 million in kickbacks by selling military vehicle parts smuggled in from Russia at inflated prices. This prompted the opposition to accuse Poroshenko of high treason, while first deputy secretary of National Security and Defense Council Oleh Hladkovskiy,formerly Svinarchuk, was dismissed as his son Ihor is believed to have been part of the alleged scheme.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow had no information about any smuggling of military vehicle parts from Russia to Ukraine, refuting such allegations as absurd.