Equality Festival participants blocked in Lviv hotel

Several unknown people in sportswear and balaclavas have blocked the Equality Festival participants in the Lviv hotel “Dniester.”

This is reported by the Ukrayinska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth) online media outlet with reference to festival’s organizer Olena Shevchenko.

“We have been blocked in the hotel. The police say that these masked men just meet their friends here,” she said.

According to the woman, about “300 right wing activists” gathered near the hotel.

The message has been posted on the festival’s website that the police received a message about the mining of the “Dniester” hotel.

“It has most likely come from someone in the crowd who wants to lure the organizers of the Equality Festival out on the street. The evacuation is ongoing, it is rater tense moment,” the organizers reported.

The official statement of the Festival reads that the organizers “are deeply concerned about the non-enforcement of the ruling of the Lviv Administrative District Court.”

“Despite the fact that holding of any public events in the streets of Lviv on March 19 was prohibited by the court order, the huge crowd has gathered now near the “Dniester” hotel, which could lead to destabilization of the situation in the city and harm its citizens and property,”  the festival’s statement says.

As reported, the Lviv hotel administrator refused to settle 25 participants of the Equality Festival, which had to be held in the city on the weekend. The hotel management reasoned their refusal by saying that the festival participants “spoil the image of the city.”