ATHENS – After Russia ordered an investigation of what it said were Russian nationals and sympathizers assaulted during a demonstration in favor of President Vladimir Putin’s ordered invasion of Ukraine, Greek police arrested two Georgian men on a range of charges.

Those include attempted murder, insulting the symbols of another state, racially motivated crime, damaging property, disobedience and violations of the law on weapons, said Kathimerini.

Investigators said the men, 27 and 26, were part of a group that attacked a motorcade of pro-Russian sympathizers in the downtown Omonia district in which two cars were damaged and two people injured.

One of the alleged victims, a Greek national, received four stitches to the head, the report said, adding that the suspects will go before a prosecutor in the aftermath of the motorcade supporting Putin and Russia.

At the event, demonstrators waved Greek and Russian flags and honked their horns as they drove by Syntagma Square, taunting pro-Ukrainian crowds holding a rally there.

Some of the vehicles were spotted emblazoned with the “Z” emblem, seen as symbolizing support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, and bastardizing the symbol that was a protest against Greece’s 1967-74 military junta.