People cheered and leapt for joy as the statue came crashing down.

 

Pro-Russian demonstrators in the largely Russian-speaking city defended the statue in February, when President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted¹.

 

Kharkiv escaped the violent unrest which swept through east Ukraine's other regions, Donetsk and Luhansk.

 

A fragile ceasefire has been in place for weeks between pro-Russian separatists in those two regions.

 

On Sunday night, when nationalist protesters had already gathered around the statue for a "Kharkiv is Ukraine" rally, the governor of Kharkiv region, Ihor Baluta, signed an order to dismantle² the statue.

 

Some correspondents say the order was probably a last-minute face-saving move.

 

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook (in Russian) that he had given orders for police to ensure only the safety of people, "not the idol³". 

 

"Lenin? Let him fall..." he wrote. "As long as people don't get hurt. As long as this bloody⁴ communist idol does not take more victims with it when it goes."

 

However, Ukrainian media reported that police had begun an investigation⁵ into "vandalism".

 

One protester was reportedly injured in the head as the statue was dismantled⁶.

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