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COMMUNIST Party of Ukraine (CPU) leader Petro Symonenko was attacked by right-wing extremists on Friday night as he left a Kiev television station.
Mr Simonenko was appearing on TV to announce that the PCU had withdrawn his candidacy for presidential elections in protest against the anarchy and chaos arising after the Kiev coup.
“There is a war in Ukraine,” he said. “Ukraine is losing its territories.
“The situation in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions is very difficult. “Oligarchs are forming not only their bandit groups but also paramilitary structures.”
“In the fight against dissent, censorship leads to only one answer to the question about the elections.
These elections will be illegitimate,” he stated.
“That is why the Communist Party has decided to withdraw my candidature.”
But leaving the television station proved difficult for the party leader.
“We could not leave the building safely because the fascists were at the door waiting for us and we had to escape as we could,” he said.
The building was surrounded by far-right activists wearing masks, he added, saying that he had been forced to leave the building through a back exit.
But his car was pursued by extremists throwing Molotov cocktails, one of which hit his car.
Mr Symonenko escaped without injury.
“Now the whole world will understand what is really going on in Ukraine,” he said.
“In such conditions it is impossible to hold normal elections, to ensure free expression of will of the voters and to guarantee equal conditions for all the candidates.”
Yulia Tymoshenko’s Fatherland Party registered its second motion on banning the Communist Party on Saturday. Ms Tymoshenko said last week that if she is not elected president she will launch a “third revolution” in the war-torn country.