Temporary ban on Eurasian Youth Union

The Kharkiv District Administrative Court has partially allowed an application from the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor calling for a ban on the activities of the Eurasian Youth Union in the Kharkiv region. The court imposed a ban for three months.  Members of the Union were not present at the court hearing.

In July this year the Prosecutor filed an application for the maximum period possible which is 6 months*. The grounds given were that the activities of the organization are of an extremist nature, used nationalist slogans and issued calls for violence. The representative of the Prosecutor’s office mentioned also that activists from the Union are suspected of being involved in the unlawful moving of the monument to the Ukrainian Resistance Army [UPA] fighters in Kharkiv.

As reported at the time during the night of 19 December the Memorial Stone to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the UPA in the Ukrainian Youth Park was wrenched from the ground and taken away.  Those responsible erected a black flag with yellow symbols.

The Memorial Stone was found during the day buried in a pit after an email was received saying that the UPA monument had been removed to mark the day of the Cheka [the first name of the NKVD]..  The leadership of the Eurasian Youth Union, an organization notorious for its radical pro-Russian views and excesses, claimed responsibility.

*  Article 31 of the Law “On citizens’ associations” allows for bans of three months which may be extended on application to six.