Seven cops injured in Ukraine clashes

KIEV: Seven police officers were injured Monday in clashes with ultra nationalists who were protesting a decision to extradite a Russian citizen wanted by Moscow as a suspected Islamic State fighter, Kiev police said.

Dozens of mainly far-right protesters blocked the entrance to the building of the prosecutor general´s office with a trash can and set it on fire. They then tried to storm the building, demanding the dismissal of the deputy prosecutor general who gave the go-ahead for Timur Tumgoyev´s extradition, an AFP correspondent said.

Protesters used stones and pepper spray to enter the building but were pushed back by the law enforcement officers. "Seven police officers were injured," police said. Tumgoyev, an ethnic Ingush from the Russian Caucasus region, fought on the side of the Ukrainian government against Russia-backed rebels in the east of the country since November 2017, his fellow soldiers say.

Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed his activities. Tumgoyev, wanted by Russia as a suspected IS militant, had twice asked for refugee status in Ukraine, but his requests were turned down. "We have no right to transform Ukraine into a cesspool for criminal elements," Ukraine´s prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko wrote on his Facebook page.