«Last Barricade” anti-language law bus stoned

At around 15.00 on Sunday afternoon the “Last Barricade” bus carrying sound equipment for the protest outside Ukrainsky Dim [Ukraine House] in Kyiv was attacked with stones. According to one of the protesters, R. Sekela, the attack took place on Kurska St  and there were injuries.  Oles Doniy, MP, who would seem to have been in the bus told Ukrainska Pravda that they came under attack and that the windows were shattered. 

Doniy says that they called the police, but he urged protests to be vigilant and look out for possible provocation.

The protest has continued outside Ukrainsky Dim since the scandalous “adoption” of the law on 3 July. As reported, in the absence of the Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, the First Deputy Speaker suddenly proposed voting on the highly contentious Law on the Principles of State Language Policy.  Certain Party of the Regions MPs known for the prominent role taken in any physical confrontations in parliament took position to prevent the opposition attempting to prevent the vote.  

Among the numerous infringements was the fact that the bill voted for (by 248 MPs’ cards, and a considerably smaller number of MPs themselves) was effectively the same as that passed in its first reading in early June. It is also unclear who those who actually voted for it were, not to mention the fact that following Lytvyn’s statement that he was resigning over the events, 11 MPs from his party “withdrew” their votes.

The protesters have already raised 12 thousand signatures against the bill.  The statement listing their demands can be found here

Protests are continuing throughout the country. 

More about the objections to the bill and the way it was supposedly passed can be found in an appeal which can be read in English here and is open for endorsement under the Ukrainian original on the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union site:

New information and the photo from www.liga.net