Kiev Police Shove Trans Rights Activists as Far-Right Violence Forces End to Rally

Police in Kiev have been accused of siding with violent, far-right demonstrators after transgender rights activists and journalists were pushed by Ukrainian police into a metro station and forced to end a rally on November 18. RFE/RL’s Christopher Miller reported that counter-protesters “assaulted several protesters and attacked a Canadian journalist.” Both Miller and the journalist in question, Michael Colborne, tweeted that Colborne had been punched in the face by far-right demonstrators. Police said they were investigating the attack as an act of “hooliganism.” The transgender rights demonstrators had originally gathered at Shevchenko Park ahead of a planned march to mark International Transgender Remembrance Day but were forced to move towards the University metro station after the arrival of the counter-protesters, RFE/RL said. A small group of counter-protesters then followed the LGBT activists to the new location. According to RFE/RL, police did not try to remove the counter-protesters “but shoved the LGBT rights activists through turnstiles of the metro station while swearing at them and shouting slurs.” Journalist Natalie Vikhrov, who shot this footage, said: “Police failed in providing protection for #transmarchukraine despite calls from rights groups, inc @Amnesty_UA for law enforcement to protect participants of the march on the eve of the event.” Ruslana Panukhnyk, executive director of Kyiv Pride, wrote on Facebook: “National Police opted to protect the right to (peaceful) assembly of far-rights and traditionalist instead of Trans*march event.” Olena Shevchenko of Insight, an LGBT activist group in Ukraine, also posted on Facebook, saying, “Police didn’t protect us” and that “Ukraine seems under control of ultra-radicals.” Ukraine’s National Police issued a statement on the rally, saying that police, “in order to avoid conflict, divided the participants.” The statement also said a gas canister was fired at the University metro station and that at least two people were injured. Michael Schaaf, the director of the Ukraine office of human rights watchdog Freedom House, tweeted that the police statement failed to address “pushing, manhandling, and abusive language by officers” and “the unmistakable impression that they had cleared #TDOR activists to make way for right wing.” Credit: Natalie Vikhrov via Storyful