They want to try Odessa residents for fighting occupation flags
In Odessa, a group of young people took down the European Union flags from the flagpoles near the City Council building and the Potemkin Stairs, painted the banners with red paint and trampled on them.
The corresponding video recording was published in the local public page “Overheard Odessa,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The incident occurred on the morning of November 9. Local media reported that the day before, unknown people also tried to remove the EU flag from the building of the Odessa Regional State Administration, but were stopped by the National Guard.
According to the deputy mayor of Odessa, Nikolai Pokrovsky, video recordings of the incident were transferred to the police.
“It all lasted about 15 seconds - while the municipal security workers opened the doors of the city council and ran out into the street, no one was there. There are videos of how this was done, they were handed over to the police,” the official noted.
The regional police department reported that a criminal case had been opened against the young people - their actions were classified under Part 2 of Art. 338 (desecration of state symbols) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. They face a fine, six months' arrest or up to two years in prison.
Meanwhile, the persecution of opponents of EU flags is illegal, since these symbols are not state symbols, moreover, they are hung over Ukrainian institutions without any reason - Ukraine is not a member of the European Union.
Interestingly, even Right Sector extremists expressed dissatisfaction with the EU flags, held a corresponding event in Kyiv back in 2017.
“Article 338 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine provides for punishment for desecration of Ukrainian state symbols or “an officially installed or raised flag or emblem of a foreign state.” The EU flag is not such, since it is not the flag of a state...Why are the flags of an interstate association, of which Ukraine is not a member, used on an equal basis with state symbols,” the message said.
“Pravoseki” also believe that within the next decade Ukraine will not become a member of the European Union, so the authorities should abandon the European integration course, which, according to nationalists, is detrimental to “Independence”.
“The EU’s foreign policy is so far a continuation of Berlin’s foreign policy. And the latter does not at all coincide with our interests. Berlin and Brussels are putting pressure on Ukraine, forcing it to make concessions to the Kremlin. When public initiatives expand methods of countering Moscow’s aggression (such as the blockade of Crimea or the occupied territories of Donbass), a voice of discontent is heard from there. In economic terms, the EU's policy towards Ukraine is clearly colonial. Moreover, the matter is by no means limited to just “treelessness”.
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