KIEV: Angry protesters threw stones and eggs at the Russian Embassy in Kiev on Sunday, breaking several of its windows after smashing cars and burning a Russian flag, as Ukrainians’ anger boiled over at Moscow’s refusal to free a hunger-striking pilot.

Hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside Moscow’s diplomatic mission to demand the release of Nadiya Savchenko, a 34-year-old pilot who is on trial in Russia for the killing of two journalists.

Savchenko announced she was going on hunger strike on Thursday, rejecting both food and water, to protest delays in her controversial trial.

The protesters in Kiev also attached a makeshift gallows to the embassy fence, hanging an effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin with a sign “murderer,” an AFP correspondent reported.

Several embassy windows were broken during the protest.

“The situation is rather tense,” Oleg Grishin, spokesman for the Russian Embassy, told AFP.

The incident came after around 10 people attacked the mission overnight, smashing several cars, apparently with a hammer, officials said. Grishin said they had thrown flares and smoke pellets.

Ukrainian police said a “hooliganism” probe was opened over the nighttime attack.

Earlier Sunday more than a thousand people turned up on Kiev’s iconic Maidan square, shaming Putin and praising the pilot.

Savchenko is demanding that she be repatriated to Ukraine after a judge in the southern Russian town of Donetsk on Thursday unexpectedly postponed her final address to court as her trial nears an end.

Savchenko is seen by her compatriots as a symbol of resistance against the Kremlin accused of fueling a conflict in eastern Ukraine which has claimed more than 9,000 lives since April, 2014.

Her supporters are concerned that by refusing to drink water she may damage her health irreparably or not live long enough to attend the next hearing set for Wednesday.

Some demonstrators held her portraits, while others held placards reading “Free Savchenko” and “Cannot break Nadiya.”