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Police in the Ukrainian city of Poltava have arrested 10 people as nationalist demonstrators attempted to interrupt a campaign appearance by President Petro Poroshenko.

Police said the demonstrators aggressively tried to provoke a conflict with officers at the event Saturday in the city 350 kilometers (210 miles) east of Kiev, the capital.

In the capital, about 3,000 nationalists demonstrated outside the presidential administration building, demanding arrests in an alleged embezzlement scheme in Ukraine's defense industries that allegedly involves figures close to Poroshenko and a factory controlled by him. Some of the demonstrators threw toy pigs, symbolizing corruption.

The embezzlement scheme, reported in a journalistic investigation in February, has become a top issue in the heated campaign ahead of Ukraine's March 31 presidential election.