A far-right group has attacked the participants of the LGBT rally in the southern city of Odesa on Aug. 30, stopping the event from happening altogether.
The attackers from the Tradition and Order conservative movement have sprayed gas and threw eggs at activists in the Black Sea port city of 1 million people nearly 500 kilometers south of Kyiv.
According to the police, two officers have been hospitalized. The local Dumskaya media reported that 16 people have been detained after the clashes.
“Such a level of aggression and impunity has not been seen during any Odesa Pride event in previous years,” reads a statement by the Odesa Pride non-profit, which organized the event, published on Aug. 30 on their Facebook page. “We call on the National Police of Ukraine to bring to justice those responsible for the attacks on peaceful demonstrators, as well as to take measures against the NGO “Tradition and Order” for inciting hatred and incitement to violence,” the statement reads.
Violence against events for LGBT rights is not a rarity in Ukraine. Due to the cooperation between the police and the activists, the safety at the main march held in Kyiv annually has noticeably increased over the recent years. However, activists in other cities like Kharkiv and Odesa remain less protected from the far-right groups.
The police reported that all law offenders have been detained. They will be charged with hooliganism and disobedience to a demand of a police officer. The police are as well considering bringing the charges of a threat or violence against a law enforcement officer.
According to Odesa Pride, the far-right group attacked the event 10 minutes after its start at the Prymorskyi Boulevard in central Odesa. The NGO says that far-right followers of the Tradition and Order arrived from other cities to assault their event.
The movement confirmed their participation in the attack on social media.
Odesa Pride said that the police did not respond to the aggression in time, even though they reassured the NGO they would be able to provide protection.
According to Odesa Pride, the police separated only some of the participants, mostly volunteers, without providing security for those who remained outside the police cordon.
“All these years we felt opposition from the authorities and the police, but what happened yesterday shocked us,” Odesa Pride wrote on Facebook on Aug. 31. “Inaction, indifference, and sometimes even aggression of the police towards peaceful demonstrators and impunity for physical and psychological violence from people who deliberately and purposefully went to Odesa to commit a crime.”
Several embassies in Ukraine have expressed condemnation regarding the violence against the rally’s participants in Odesa.
British Ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons wrote on Twitter she was appalled by the attack.
“Democracy is founded on respect for human rights. The violence against marchers was a hate crime and I call on police to investigate it as a hate crime,” Simmons said.
The Swiss Embassy commented on the attack in a statement published on Twitter.
“Condemning the violence during the Odesa Pride 2020 march on 30 August, Switzerland calls on Ukraine to ensure equal rights for all and conduct a proper investigation into allegations of hate crime and violence against the LGBTIQ community,” the embassy wrote.
