Roma are increasingly filing complaints against the mayors of Ukrainian cities, politicians and officials speaking with anti-Roma rhetoric.
The Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights, Lyudmila Denisova, stated this during a press conference, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The number of complaints regarding discrimination based on nationality has increased by 50 percent. Of the total number of these complaints, 33 percent are reports of violations of the rights of citizens of Roma ethnic origin,” Denisova said.
She acknowledged that anti-Roma sentiment had spread among Ukrainian officials.
“I am forced to admit that the spread of hate speech against the Roma national minority continues. An example of this is cases of anti-Roma rhetoric from local governments. Thus, in June 2021, the city mayor of Rivne suggested that Roma people leave the city within a few hours, otherwise they would be forcibly taken to Transcarpathia.
In August of this year, the city mayor of Drohobych informed at a weekly council that “the central part of the city of Drohobych is occupied by gypsies and homeless people,” Denisova cited examples.
Earlier, in the city of Torchin, Volyn region of Ukraine, a group of Roma beat up an ex-ATO militant. And in Kyiv a group of gypsies beat up VSUshnikov.