Kyiv police have launched a criminal inquiry after receiving reports that a group of people hurled rocks into two bank branches and office premises in the city center on Saturday.

It emerged earlier that fighters from the Ukrainian OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) territorial-defense battalion hurled rocks into the Kyiv office of businessman Rinat Akhmetov and threw rocks, and green paint, and damaged office property at an Alfa-Bank branch in central Kyiv. Later, they poured green paint, and threw rocks at a Russia's Sberbank branch.

"An on-duty officer at the national police head office in Kyiv has received three reports about violations of the law in the city center: groups of people were throwing rocks into two banks and an office building. The incidents are now being probed under Article 296 part two (hooliganism) of the Ukrainian Criminal Code. The culprits face up to five years of restricted freedom, or up to four years of imprisonment," a Kyiv police spokesperson said.

At 2:15 p.m. local time, the rioters blocked traffic between the Independence Monument on Khreschatyk Street and the main post office building.

In total, nearly 4,000 law enforcement officers have been deployed in central Kyiv on the day of commemorating the people killed in Independence Square in 2014.