(BRUSSELS) - Four pro-democracy activists from Ukraine's feminist group Femen staged a brief topless protest Friday against Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in Brussels attending a European Union summit.

The four young women, stripped to the waist and covered in painted slogans such as "Apocalypse", suddenly exited from an underground rail station and raced briefly across the road towards EU headquarters before being thrown to the ground by a dozen burly police.

Shouting and screaming in English "Putin go to hell! Democracy, democracy!", they were hauled off in a police van.

The "Putin is the Apocalypse" protest lasted only minutes, causing no disruption to an EU-Russia summit being held inside the EU building.

It occurred shortly after Putin's arrival for talks with EU president Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso touching on a long list of fraught subjects -- Syria, trade disputes, and human rights.

However the EU officials were under pressure from parliamentarians and rights groups to prioritise human rights during the talks with the Russian leader.

The Femen women's power group has been making headlines since 2010 for topless feminist, pro-democracy and anti-corruption protests in Russia, Ukraine and London.

In September they set up their first "training centre" in Paris.