Pro-Russian groups have attacked a pro-Kiev rally in the troubled Ukrainian region of Crimea as thousands took to the streets across Ukraine in rival demonstrations, escalating separatist tensions in the ex-Soviet state.
Violence flared In Sevastopol when pro-Russian groups attacked a small group of Ukrainians commemorating the 200th anniversary of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko’s birth and the police had to intervene, according to Reuters news agency.
Footage from the event showed a group of men violently kicking one of the Ukrainians as he lay on the ground and a man repeatedly hitting him with a long black leather whip, the agency said.
