KIEV, December 28 (RIA Novosti) – Two prominent Ukrainian opposition politicians – a former interior minister and his wife – were daubed with green dye in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov on Saturday, the latest in a series of similar incidents.
The attackers used the dilute alcoholic solution of “brilliant green” dye, a cheap and popular topical antiseptic that can be found in every drug store in Russia and other ex-Soviet states. The substance, albeit harmless, is very difficult to wash out.
An unidentified woman splashed the liquid on Lutsenko and his wife Irina, who is a lawmaker and a prominent member the opposition Fatherland party, Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency reported.
Several minutes later, a man tried to do the same, but failed. Both were detained.
The couple was attending a pro-European rally which has been gathering in the city since late November.
The list of other people who have been daubed with green dye in the past months includes Inna Bohoslovska, a lawmaker who recently quit the ruling Party of Regions, and Serhiy Vlasenko, a lawyer for Ukraine’s jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko.
