A gang of Ukrainians used bottles and boots to in an vicious attack on a Kuwaiti national that left the victim hospitalized, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday, according to dpa. The incident took place in the Black Sea port city Odessa after about 10 young men and teenagers, believed to be skinheads and wearing military-style clothes and haircuts surrounded the victim in a residential area of the city. Each of the attackers struck the Kuwaiti one time in the head with a glass bottle, the news agency said, adding that some, but not all of them, then kicked the victim with combat boots when he fell to the ground. A city ambulance took 40 minutes to respond to the scene. The victim was on Monday recovering from a brain concussion and other injuries at a private clinic while police investigated the incident, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Tatiana Khmelnitska said. Racially-motivated attacks are not commonly reported in Ukraine, but in incidents of this nature ethnic Jews and Muslim Tartars are often targeted, with ethnic Russians or Ukrainians inevitably carrying out the attacks. Nationalist Ukrainian politicians have criticized recent influx of Middle Eastern, African and Chinese immigrants into Ukraine, a country with one of the former Soviet Union's most liberal immigration policies, as dangerous to the country's "ethnic purity." Ukraine's government has repeatedly claimed racist attacks are isolated incidents, and not evidence of widespread prejudice against ethnic minorities. Ukrainian ethnic minority leaders have argued the government is closing its eyes to a chronic problem that will only grow worse.
