Pro-Kremlin demonstrators threw eggs and tomatoes at the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow on Sunday, in response to a Ukrainian protest at the Russian Embassy in Kiev to denounce Russia's trial against Nadezhda Savchenko, media reports said.
Ukrainian protesters threw firecrackers at the Russian Embassy, and smashed several parked cars during the attack on Saturday night or in the small hours Sunday, according to news reports and videos the protesters posted online.
Protesters demanded that Russia "Free Nadya Savchenko," according to the video. The Ukrainian pilot, who is on trial in southern Russia, has declared a "dry" hunger strike — meaning that she would abstain from water and other liquids, as well as from food — after the court banned her from making a scheduled closing statement and adjourned until March 9.
Following the nighttime raid, several hundred of Russia's pro-Kremlin activists responded with a rally at the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow on Sunday evening, chanting "Fascism won't pass," the Russian News Service reported.
After large-scale Maidan protests in Ukraine toppled a Moscow-backed administration two years ago, Russian officials and state-run media have been denouncing Ukrainian protesters as "fascists" Ukraine.
An activist at the Sunday rally said the Russian protest was a response to the "pogrom that Ukrainian citizens held near the Russian Embassy," Russia's LifeNews portal reported.
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