Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko demanded punishment for young radicals who had attacked a lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) march in Ukraine's capital on Saturday, setting off clashes that allegedly left about 20 people injured.

"I believe that political forces that protested the march fanned up the situation by trying to earn dubious PR points on the minority rights theme," the mayor's office quoted Klitschko as telling reporters in Kyiv.

Klitschko mentioned that several days before the "Equality March" he had urged anti-LGBT groups "not to fan hostility and not to create a standoff in the capital over the march."

"Today the police were doing their duty by maintaining order at the march. What happened when aggressive young men assaulted the marchers and clashed with law enforcers is unacceptable. Moreover, in a situation where the country deals with an external aggression, it is most important of all that there should be law and order and security at local level," the mayor said.

He said freedom of views is guaranteed to everyone in Kyiv.

According to the city police authority, nine police officers were injured in clashes during the LGBT march on Obolonska Embankment. One of them was in a severe condition with a neck injury.

Police arrested 25 people for hurling explosives at the marchers over a police cordon. Fireworks, screwdrivers, knives and other potentially dangerous items were seized from them.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian LGBT community, Sviatoslav Sheremet, told Interfax-Ukraine that he possessed confirmed information that four marchers had been injured, and that "my colleagues say that altogether about 10 have been injured." "A lawyer is working on legal assistances to the casualties," he said.