‘Bandits’ attack LGBTQ activists in Ukraine
MICHAEL LAVERS | Washington BladeCourtesy of National LGBT Media Association Originally published March 1 An LGBTQ rights group in Ukraine on Tuesday said a group of “bandits” broke into their office in the country’s capital and attacked four activists who were inside.
Nash Mir Coordinator Andriy Maymulakhin, in an email to supporters wrote that “some unknown people broke [the] door in our office in” Kyiv where four of his colleagues were living and “brutally beat them and robbed [them.]” “We do not know who they are,” said Maymulakhin, who noted the assailants had guns. “They humiliated my friends.
They are bandits.” Maymulakhin said his four colleagues are now at a “shelter” in Kyiv. An LGBTQ activist in the Ukrainian capital with whom the Washington Blade spoke confirmed the Nash Mir staffers who were attacked “are safe.” It is not immediately clear who carried out the attack, but it took place against the backdrop of Russian troops’ continued advance towards Kyiv.
Magomed Tushayev, a Chechen warlord who played a role in the anti-LGBTQ crackdown in his homeland, died in late February during a skirmish with the Ukrainian military’s elite Alpha Group outside of Kyiv.
