Published
Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 17:35
- The crowd at yesterday's gathering waved placards with slogans like "Make Podil Safe Again" and "We Dance Together / We Fight Together."
Around 300 people from Kyiv's club community and beyond gathered yesterday, November 29th, to protest against the police.
The protest, which began at 6:30 PM outside the Ministry Of Internal Affairs, was specifically against the police's perceived inaction following a recent spate of far-right attacks on clubs in Kyiv's cultural district, Podil.
For around 90 minutes, the crowd chanted and waved placards with slogans like "Make Podil Safe Again," "We Dance Together / We Fight Together" and "Why Do Sexy People (Me) Have To Suffer From Cops & Far Rights." They were surrounded by police officers due to a counter-protest across the road featuring around 60 members of the far right.
"There were dozens of things that could have gone wrong with this protest," Nastasia Pustova, one of the organizers, told Resident Advisor. "The opponents' counter-protest was one of them. I think our main success is that very different people came to claim their right for safety. Along with the loyal audience of HVLV and the communities that suffer the most from violence of these criminal groups, like civil rights activists, here were businesspeople, veterans, families [...] Everyone here is just tired of this group of bandits who terrorise the whole neighbourhood, and cops doing nothing about it."
Another of the organisers, Kateryna Voychuk,
told RA that Kyiv's chief of police, Ivan Vyhivsky, and a representative of the minister of internal affairs got in touch ahead of the protest.
"We talked about the demands of the protest," she said, "about bringing to justice for inaction the head of the Podil's police department, Pavlo Vasylenko, about the transparency of criminal proceedings against HVLV's attackers, and about restoring security on Podil."
She added: "They were deeply concerned and promised to take control of all issues."
Throughout November, far-right groups have been targeting clubs and partygoers in Podil. Last Saturday, 15-20 people in sports jackets and balaclavas attacked a bouncer and smashed windows at local venue HVLV. No one was seriously injured, and Saturday's party went ahead as normal.
Here are some photos from the protest.
Photos: Andrii Bashtovyi (The Village Ukraine)
Photos: Andrii Bashtovyi (The Village Ukraine)