Ukrainian nationalists ransack Roma encampment

MOSCOW – Ukrainian police say a group of men armed with axes and hammers descended on a park in the capital, Kyiv, ransacking a Roma encampment.

The police said in a statement Friday that they opened a criminal case on charges of hooliganism against the group of “aggressive people from a civil organization.” No casualties were reported,

The right-wing National Squad claimed the responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement on Facebook that they “will not allow (anyone) to turn our city into a drugs den.” The incident comes a month after another group of nationalists attacked a Roma settlement in another part of Kyiv.

National Squad is one of dozens of ultranationalist groups drawing recruits from volunteer battalions who have been fighting Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.