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Violent assault on Hostynny Dvir activist

27.05.2013   
Yevhen Parfyonov, was attacked on Saturday night seemingly after being stopped by thugs who concluded on the basis of the fact that he was speaking Ukrainian that he was a “nationalist”

There are conflicting reports about why a young civic activist, Yevhen Parfyonov, was attacked on Saturday night.  It was reported that he had been attacked after being stopped by thugs who concluded on the basis of the fact that he was speaking Ukrainian that he was a “nationalist”.  The two Ukrainska Pravda accounts are different, however  the assailants were clearly aiming to cause damage.  Yevhen received a broken nose as well as injuries to the jaw and neck.  

Hostynny Dvir is a landmark in the centre of Kyiv.  In August 2011 Prime Minister Azarov signed a document which removed Hostynny Dvir from the list of monuments under State protection.  It is under reconstruction by Ukrrestavratsiya which is in fact a property developer, owned, according to Kyiv Post , by the Cyprus-registered Afidreko Holdings Limited,   With the carte blanche issued by Azarov’s government, the Kyiv City Administration issued a permit to the property developer to make the site into a shopping and office centre.

Protest has been continuing outside Hostynny Dvir since May 2012.

Journalist and civic activist, Ihor Lutsenko may have simply not known all the details but he claims that the attack was like previous ones against opposition members.  Six young thugs high on something stopped outside Yevhen’s flat and began beating him.  Yevhen has lived in the area for a long time and is convinced the men were not local.  Yevhen in fact says that just one of the thugs beat him while the others looked out for anybody coming.

Ihor Lutsenko notes that one of the young men filmed the attack on his mobile phone, suggesting that they were hired to carry out the attack.

Ihor Lutsenko asserts that this is the latest in a number of attacks on active opposition figures which are masked as hooliganism. He says that such attacks were seen on 4, 10 and 13 May while there was an attempted assault on 14 May. A letter he quotes in full (but without naming the author) speaks of an “officially undeclared, but in no way less dangerous for that, campaign of terror aganst nationalists and radicals.”

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