Incidents with flags waving in the central area of Ukraine's capital Kiev sparked much controversy on Tuesday, leaving media outlets divided over whether they were Bulgarian or Russian.

Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev is visiting Ukraine on Tuesday and Wednesday to meet several officials including counterpart Petro Poroshenko.

Russian news agency TASS reported on Monday that "vandals" had torn apart some 15 Bulgarian flags hoisted to mark the visit by Plevneliev, the first a Bulgarian head of state is paying to Ukraine in 12 years.

"Under nightlight, the green stripe of Bulgaria's flag between the white and the red one might be interpreted as blue, which was evidently the reason for the vandalism episode," TASS quotes members of the Kiev city council as saying.

However, Dmytro Linko, a Ukrainian MP, uploaded on Facebook photos of two of the flags, adding they were both Russian.

"Now in the center of Kiev the flags of Ukraine and Bulgaria are hanging. But I looked at them and I have a question: which one is the Bulgarian flag? How does it seem to you?"

Russian media outlets have offered diverging interpretations, with some considering the flags to have been Russian due to a simple mistake.