Two years of war

The leader of the church, Taras Sen, is under “investigation” by the militants. They call him a “cultist” and accuse his church of being financed by believers from all over the world. The Protestant is also being accused of cooperating with the OSCE mission, as members of this organization asked the community leader how many people attend church gatherings, what is the mood of the city’s residents, and how many people actually supported the so-called “referendum” in 2014.²⁷².

“First of all, we need to clearly understand that these organizations have clear goals, and the directions [they take] are far from nebulous. And we can easily see that is we follow different cult things that the people behind them come from the CIA,” the separatist said²⁷³.

Photos of the Protestant “Renewal” church in the city Krasniy Luch, which was almost completely destroyed after a visit by representatives of the Russian paramilitary Cossack movement, were published earlier. In particular, the occupants burned copies of the New Testament in the courtyard²⁷⁴.

5. Anti-Semitism in Ukraine

Anti-Semitic Attacks

According to data collected by the monitoring program, one case of presumably anti-Semitic violent crime was recorded in 2015.

Since the beginning of systematic monitoring, the number of recorded victims of violent anti-Semitic attacks is as follows:

8 victims in 2004, 13 in 2005, 8 in 2006, 8 in 2007, 5 in 2008, 1 in 2009, 1 in 2010, none in 2011, 4 in 2012 (three incidents), 4 in 2014, and 4 in 2014.

As can be seen, the number of violent anti-Semitic crimes peaked in 2005, and a notable decline has set in since 2007. In recent years, the number of such incidents remains at a stable low. Besides quantity, 2005-2007 was also the time when the most dangerous, life-threatening street attacks took place.
Anti-Semitic vandalism

By vandalism we understand both physical damage, such as broken windows and arson attempts, to buildings that are part of the Jewish infrastructure (synagogues and community centers), to tombstones in Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust memorials, and anti-Semitic and/or neo-Nazi graffiti in similar objects, which are evidence of ideological motivation.

The number of recorded incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism since the beginning of the monitoring is as follows: 15 cases in 2004, 13 in 2005, 21 in 2006, 20 in 2007, 13 in 2008, 16 in 2010, 9 cases each in 2011, 2012, and 2013, and 23 cases in 2014.

Thus, in 2015 there has been a slight reduction in the number of acts of anti-Semitic vandalism in comparison to the previous year 2014.

Public manifestations of anti-Semitism
On March 15, a “narodnoye veche” (people’s assembly) took place in Rivne, which was organized by nationalist opponents of the local Oblast Council chairman Mikhail Kirillov. One of the speakers was Lyubov Ukrainchuk, who introduced herself as a representative of the Right Sector and stated that “the reason people don’t have a good life in Ukraine is because of Jews who took power.”²⁷⁵.

The leader of the regional Right Sector division Roman Koval stated that the woman has nothing to do with their organization and condemned her anti-Semitic statements.²⁷⁶.

Even though direct anti-Semitic rhetoric was not employed at the event (as the “Khazarian” aspect faded into the background, making way for the main articulated demand of the event—revoking the Minsk Protocol),²⁷⁷ the context nonetheless evoked veiled anti-Semitic associations.

“What are we celebrating and what are we demanding?” the Right Sector asked of itself in the announcement at its official website. The immediately-given response is a rather curious train of thought. Upon having mentioned his “glorious forebears,” the anonymous author turns to the more pressing matter of “inner enemies.” “Today we can state with certainty that, despite the Maidan, Ukraine continues to suffer under the oppression of a new Khazaria--the criminal oligarchic system. This system keeps Ukraine practically without statehood, robs the population, and leads our country into the abyss of decay--and, what is more, in this time of military aggression, it helps Moscow establish control over Ukraine through its ‘peaceful plans.’ If it were not for the preservation of the oligarchic system, if it were not for the power of poroshenkos, turchinovs, yatsenyuks, groysmans [and others like them], we would have already freed the Donbass and have been in preparation to free the Crimea.”

It makes sense to suppose that in the context of the chosen date and symbolism of the protest march, the link between the “anti-Ukrainian government,” the “oligarchic system,” and the “new Khazaria” was also anti-Semitic to some degree for the organizators of the event themselves.²⁷⁸.

The participants of the meeting held posters calling to “Say ‘No!’ to the Jewish government!” and informing everyone present that “The Jewish Brotherhood Sells Ukraine!”, complete with a deciphering of the “real” (naturally, Jewish) surnames of Ukrainian politicians, including Oleh Tyahnybok (alleged Frotman) and Alexander Turchinov (alleged Cohen).

Over 100 people, including minors, participated in the meeting. After the end of the event, the organizators paid the participants for their work (50 hrivnyas, or a little over 2 dollars).²⁷⁹.

Officially, the request to hold the rally was made by the “Active Element” NGO, originating in Slavsk city of the Lviv region. According to unofficial information, one of the organizators is part of the entourage of Opposition Bloc MP Igor Shurma.²⁸⁰.

On the next day, July 23, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Lviv region began an investigation in response to an attempt to incite national hatred (Article 161 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code, Part 1) (10).²⁸¹. At the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ukrainian Security Services began a check of the “Active Element” organization.²⁸².

The police also initiated an enquiry into the holding of an anti-Semitic event.²⁸³.

It is somewhat difficult to discern from the text of the response which “kikes” need to understand something, but it can be supposed that Victor Baloga means the leaders of Ukraine in general or even President Petro Poroshenko personally.

The politician said, “Let these kikes go back to their state of Israel, get elected there, and stop interfering with Ukrainians in our own country.” Judging by the context of the speech, the politician meant particularly President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. Moreover, according to the Svoboda functionary, “Georgians who are invited to rule over us denigrate our dignity”. This saying was obviously aimed at former Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, who was appointed Governor of the Odessa Regional State Administration.²⁸⁵. 

Yuri Sirotyuk first gained notoriety while he was still an MP through his criticism of Gaitana, who represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012. According to Sirotyuk, “she does not represent our culture.” The parliamentary deputy said: “the millions of people who will be watching the show will see that Ukraine is represented, so to speak, a person that does not belong to our race. It will be widely thought that Ukraine lies somewhere in faraway Africa... Ukraine will be associated with another continent, that is, Africa.”²⁸⁶.

The All-Ukrainian “Svoboda” Union was one of the sponsors of the festival.

It later became known that the Assembly of Nationalities of Ukraine filed a complaint to the Ukrainian Security Services, in which they argued that Sirotyuk’s statements fall under Article 161 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (“Willful actions inciting national, racial or religious enmity and hatred”).²⁸⁷.
On September 5, Yuri Kot, former front man for the Kyiv Anti-Maidan stage and currently the spokesperson of the so-called “Committee for the Rescue of Ukraine” (a group of politicians from the Yanukovich regime, headed by former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, who fled the country after the revolution), spoke at the “Novostnoy Front” website, ²⁸⁸which provides propaganda support from the so-called “separatists” with a “prediction” of “Jewish pogroms” in Ukraine. This is a danger because, Kot says, “today, the Jews persecute the Russian people.” According to Kot, 300 out of 450 Ukrainian MPs are Jewish. He alo insisted on calling Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko “Waltzman.” ²⁸⁹.
On October 14, a representative of the All-Ukrainian “Svoboda” Union political party, Mikhail Geraschenko, made a number of anti-Semitic statements in his speech at a rally in Zaporizhia dedicated to Defender’s Day in Ukraine. Gerashenko said: “Today we are all in this situation that the kike brass has taken over 80% of the government, supposedly ruling the Ukrainian nation... Imagine the Jewish people electing an Arab to be President of Israel--that’s impossible! But our nation is being pursued precisely by the Jews!”²⁹⁰.

After these statements, Gerashenko’s speech was interrupted, and one of the participants of the rally, a man dressed in military uniform with insignia of one of the volunteer area defense batallions, even tried to attack the speaker.

On October 25, elections to local councils were held all over Ukraine, as well as elections of heads of city and village state administrations.

Instances of anti-Semitic materials aimed at discrediting certain candidates were recorded in several regions. It must be noted that these were isolated incidents, and no organized systematic campaign took place; the scope of the incidents was also quite limited. It is also notable that candidates who are widely known to be ethnic Jews have successfully competed in the elections, and in several cases made it to the second round or won, including in large cities, particularly Kyiv and Kharkiv. On the other hand, radical ultra-right candidates also had some local success. For example, a Svoboda member, notorious for driving a car with a 14/88 sticker, was elected to the post of mayor at the city of Konotop.²⁹².

Bright orange flyers were disseminated in Drogobych (Lviv Region) with the following text: “Kondratyuk! A kike from Berdychiv! And he wants to be mayor?”²⁹³. Similar flyers, but stating that the would-be mayor was a separatist, were also disseminated.

Yuri Kondratyuk is a little-known self-nominated candidate, who received practically no voter support in the elections.

In the city of Cherkasy, promotional posters (so-called “cubes”) of candidate Alexander Radutsky were debased with anti-Semitic slogans. For example, the slogan “Live for Cherkasy” (“Zhyty Cherkasamy”) was supplemented by the following: “Kikes in Cherkasy - kolyyvschina soon to come!” (“Zhydy v Cherkassah - kolyyvschina skoro!”). The kolyyvschina was an uprising by the haidamaks, pro-Ukrainian paramilitary groups in the 18th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which involved severe Jewish pogroms. “Ukrainians! Do not vote for foreigners! Support Ukrainians!” calls a different sign on another “cube.” A third cube had a quote mistakenly attributed to Taras Shevchenko “Vile kikes rule over us, and we are even worse thank kikes, for we have sold the glory of our grandfathers and the kikes have us harnessed.”

The candidate himself believes that the discreditation campaign was initiated by the well-known local politician Sergey Odarych, who won the elections. We believe this to be implausible, however. Odarych had been the front-runner of these elections, he is a well-known politician with a good reputation. Radutsky received fourth place in the elections and had not been any real competition to the winner.

Judging by certain elements of the graffiti, it can be supposed that it had been made by perfectly genuine anti-Semites, supporters of a marginal national-radical youth group “Right movement 10/44,” which has recently appeared in certain Central and Eastern Ukrainian cities. ²⁹⁴.

According to an unconfirmed report, on October 29, a drunken hooligan walked into a Jewish community center museum in Odesa and started insulting the visitors, calling them “kikes.” Someone called the patrol police, and upon arrival they had to use force to arrest the troublemaker.²⁹⁵.
On November 22, a rally took place in the middle of Kyiv, at Independence Square. The organizators of the rally called it a “narodnoye veche,” i.e. a people’s legislative assembly. The main topic of the speeches given from the stage was a lack of trust towards the acting government. Some of the speakers made anti-Semitic statements.

For example, a certain Tarasenko said: “enough tolerating this government headed by President Weissman, speaker Groysman and other kike trash,” and lamented that “we Ukrainians [...] keep being lead on like a flock of sheep.” Another speaker said, “I don’t need this, pardon [the language], kike-ish president.”

Another speaker, Alexander Borozenets, who introduced himself as a member of “Rukh” and the “Officer’s Union of Ukraine,” warned the gathering of a serious threat. “There is a war going on right now. A terrible war. The global Zionist movement wants to move all of Israel over to Ukraine, all of it! Everything is being prepared for that moment. This whole war is only to move all the Jews [literally - all of Israel. -transl] here. You must understand that! This is their goal. And the blood of our sons means nothing to them!”²⁹⁶.

As far as it is known, the event was organized by the Coalition of Participants of the Orange Revolution, a group that has been known for prior participation in commerical spin events. Approximately 500 people participated in the rally, most of whom were middle age and older. There were no important political figures or activists either among the organizators or the speakers. Judging by the content of the speeches, the speakers empathized with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Revolutionary Right-Wing Powers movement, which had been established a day earlier.

On the next day, November 23, the Officers’ Union of Ukraine published a statement in which they distanced themselves from the man calling himself “Major Aleksandr Borozinets, representative of the Officers’ Union of Ukraine,” who made anti-Semitic statements. The Officers’ Union of Ukraine did not participate in the rally and did not vest Mr. Borozinets with the power to represent it. According to the statement, the Officers’ Union of Ukraine officially distances itself from any and all speeches and addresses with similar content. In its everyday activity, it acts within the boundaries of current legislation, implements inter-ethnic concord and peace in everyday life, and condemns xenophobic and anti-Semitic manifestations in the Ukrainian state²⁹⁷.
6. Homophobia in Ukraine, 2015
This section of the report only includes incidents which happened in territories controlled by the Ukrainian government. Incidents in occupied territories can be found in the respective sections above.
● In early 2015, ^{298 299} several members of the LGBT community were murdered in Kharkiv and Kyiv. This refers to robberies committed by casual acquaintances who had been invited to visit the homes of the victims. The robberies were violent, and in some cases, the owners of the houses were murdered as well. It would not be too far-fetched to suppose that many similar incidents that did not end in murder were not made public because the victims avoided going to the police in fear of a negative reaction from the police workers themselves. They also sought to keep their sexual orientation private. According to one expert from the LGBTI community, “a robber or hooligan can assume that if his victim is a homosexual, they will not resist or will not turn to the police afterwards out of fear of disclosing their sexual orientation”³⁰⁰.

The LGBTI community was specifically targeted for these crimes. However, as far as can be determined, the perpetrators’ motivation for these crimes was profit, not hatred towards homosexuals. The choice of victim is in these cases a rational estimate, and an estimate which paid off. Homosexuals who look for one night stands are merely convenient victims for criminals. Even though the media sometimes interpret these as homophobic crimes, we believe that it would be incorrect to qualify similar incidents as hate crimes.

As in previous years, the preparation for the march had been accompanied by intense homophobic propaganda by national-radical groups and political powers. This year, the Right Sector took upon itself the mantle of the main public organizer of resistance to the march.

A week before the event, the Banderivets website (the official homepage of the Stepan Bandera Tryzub organization, which became the base for the Right Sector movement) published a statement that the organization will do everything within its power to put a stop to the march of “perverts.”³⁰². The leader of the Right Sector, MP Dmytro Yarosh, also made a homophobic statement, wherein he harshly condemned the activities of Ukraine’s LGBTI community.³⁰³.

Before the March, a number of politicians and public officials spoke out with their evaluations of the event, which were quite diverse. The mayor of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko, asked the organizers to refrain from holding the March, because “this is not a good time—not right now, with war in the east of Ukraine.” One of the slogans of the event became a response to that kind of argument: “Human rights are always important.” The mayor of Kyiv generally spoke in somewhat hazy terms. In particular, he called for one group (which can be inferred to be the organizers) “not to play into the enemy’s hands, not to incite hatred, and to refrain from creating yet another standoff in the center of the capital,” and addressed other political powers (who can be inferred to be opponents of the March) with a request “not to pull dubious publicity stunts and speculate on minority rights.”³⁰⁴.

On the other hand, the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, supported the constitutional rights of the organizers at a pres conference. In response to a question asked about the March, he replied: “I see this both as a Christian and as the President of a European country. To me, both of these notions are absolutely united [in their stand on the matter at hand -transl.]. I will not be participating, if that’s your question, but I see no reason for anyone to obstruct the event, as it [the right to gather freely] is the constitutional right of citizens. [...] I do not share the indignation of the political groups who want to make it into their own publicity campaign. It is not a topic for publicity campaigns. I am certain that if the march does take place, the law enforcement bodies will be able to ensure its safety.”³⁰⁵.

To ensure the safety of the participants, the place of the march had not been made public until the last possible moment. However, due to a technical problem which held up the beginning of the event, many radical right activists, who had been mobilized in advance, had time to enact provocations. The police, who were protecting the event, did not allow the national-extremists to come close, but the radicals threw weak makeshift bombs at the column, filled with small projectiles. One of the police workers had been severely injured as the subprojectiles hit him in the neck³⁰⁶.

After the March was over, radical right activists attacked participants who had been home, particularly near the Obolon metro station. The police and the national-radicals clashed constantly, and the most active extremists were arrested. According to unofficial information of the organizators, seven of the arrested national-radicals were charged with hooliganism. Approximately 20 participants of the March were hurt, as were several random passersby³⁰⁷.

The organizators and activists received multiple threats even after the event had passed.

● On July 13, former Right Sector MP candidate Oleg Kutserib posted on Facebook that he and his son armed themselves with baseball bats and attacked two men near the entrance to his own house, having decided that they are “faggots.” Two “sympathizers” were also harmed. According to Kutserib, his victims will “spend no less than two weeks at the hospital.”³⁰⁸.
● On July 20, at approximately 4 AM, a grenade was set off near the Odesa “Libertine” club, which has a reputation for being gay-friendly. A security guard was wounded; he was hospitalized with a shrapnel wound on his hip.³⁰⁹.
● On July 22, the “Bird in Flight” journal published a video recording of a social experiment, ³¹⁰during which two young men took a stroll through Kyiv holding hands. On Khreschatik Street [the main street of Kyiv. -transl.], one of the young men sat down on a bench, and the other sat on his knees. Approximately 6-7 young men approached them and, after a short but heated argument, began beating the participants of the experiment.
● The queer culture festival “Odessa Pride-2015” took place from August 14 to August 16. The organizators originally planned a public March of Equality as part of the festival, to have been held on August 15.³¹¹.

However, on August 12, the Executive Committee of the Odesa City Council filed a claim with the Odesa Regional Administrative Court against the chairman of the “Odessa Pride-2015” organizational committee. The city council was also backed up by the Odesa City Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the Odesa region. The claimant requested that the court restrict the right to peaceful gatherings of the “Odessa Pride-2015” Organizational Committee in the person of its Chairman by forbidding any sorts of mass public events from August 13 to August 16, including gatherings, rallies, pickets, marches, demonstrations, and any other kind of peaceful gathering on Odesa’s streets. The city council’s arguments included an adversarial attitude among the residents of the city towards the upcoming event as well as the high risk of violence towards participants of the march and the possible disturbance of public order during the event.³¹².

On the next day, August 13, the court prohibited holding the March of Equality in Odesa.

On August 15, the premises of the Queer Home Odessa community center, where the “Odessa Pride-2015” festival was being held, were attacked. A group of youths, likely members of the radical right,³¹³ gathered near the building. According to the festival’s spokesperson Kirill Bodelan, a group of young people in masks and camouflage forced its way onto the premises. Two of them threw firecrackers near the entrance to the premises, and one made his way inside and threw a detonating cartridge into the hall. The attackers were able to get away. The other young people continued to stay near the entrance to the building until they were led away by the police. According to Bodelan, none of the participants of the festival were harmed.

The Organizational Committee of the festival, “the attack on the LGBT community center was made by a marginal, extremist group”; however, they also stated that they are not viewing this as “an act of aggression from right-wing national groups, or any other patriotic and religious groups.”³¹⁴.

On August 16, the All-Ukrainian “Svoboda” Union political party took responsibility for attempting to obstruct the opening of the “Odessa Pride-2015” festival. According to the PR department of the Odessa regional branch of “Svoboda,” 13 party activists and members of its youth organization were arrested for, we quote, “being present near the LGBT festival.”³¹⁵.

On the evening of August 30, at approximately 8:30 PM, a group of unidentified people in masks attacked the Queer Home Krivbas community center. They threw smoke grenades into the building and ransacked it. One of the guests was seriously beaten and had to be hospitalized.³¹⁸. It later became known that the police opened criminal proceedings, qualifying the incident as “intended minor bodily injury”³¹⁹.

On September 1, it became known that the local division of the Right Sector strongly protested against “manipulating the names of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred.” The leader of the Mykolayiv Right Sector, Mikhail Borsuk, appealed to the Chairman of the Mykolayiv Regional State Administration Vadim Merikov³²¹ and published a statement in various social media, where he threatened to “give a sharp rebuke to these provocations.³²².

In turn, on September 2, the LGBT Association LIGA addressed the governor of the region with a request to “explain to the leaders of the Right Sector that all actions aimed at interfering with respecting the memory of those who died in the Revolution of Dignity are acts of discrimination, as they crudely violate Ukrainian law and assault human dignity.”³²³.

In the end, representatives of the LGBT community decided to cancel the organized laying of flowers out of concern for safety of the event.