Nationalists have
torn down a statue of Lenin in the centre of Ukraine's second-largest city,
Kharkiv, in a move supported by officials.
People cheered and
leapt for joy as the statue came crashing down.
Pro-Russian demonstrators in
the largely Russian-speaking city defended the statue in February,
when President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted.
Kharkiv escaped the
violent unrest which swept through east Ukraine's other regions, Donetsk and
Luhansk.
A fragile ceasefire
has been in place for weeks between pro-Russian separatists in those two
regions.
On Sunday night,
when nationalist protesters had already gathered around the statue for a
"Kharkiv is Ukraine" rally, the governor of Kharkiv region, Ihor
Baluta, signed an order to dismantle the statue.
Some correspondents
say the order was probably a last-minute face-saving move.
Ukrainian Interior
Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook (in
Russian) that he had given orders for police to ensure only
the safety of people, "not the idol".
"Lenin? Let
him fall..." he wrote. "As long as people don't get hurt. As long as
this bloody communist idol does not take more victims with it when it
goes."
However, Ukrainian
media reported that police had begun an investigation into
"vandalism".
One protester was
reportedly injured in the head as the statue was dismantled.
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