Deputy of the local council from the Svoboda political party called dark-skinned students “cockroaches”

Deputy of the Kivertsi district council (Volyn region) from the Svoboda (Freedom) political party Anatoly Pushkin allowed himself to use racist statements, commenting on the information about the fact that dark-skinned students were attacked in Lutsk.

As reported by journalist Oksana Petruk on her Facebook page, she published screenshots with comments made by deputy of the local council.

In the comments, Pushkin, who is an authorized representative of the Svoboda political faction, called dark-skinned students cockroaches and recommends them to “study in Nigeria”.

In addition, Pushkin made a recommendation to women, who pointed at the inadmissibility of his statements, to “take this Negro home” and to “marry Negroes”.

He also calls to save the Ukrainian nation from extinction and scares with the prospect of the domination of other nations.

“You will be scared when a Negro appears among your neighbors and in few years you will be in the Negro district”, – he answered to the reporter, who condemns his statements.

The author of the post, Oksana Petruk, believes that Pushkin fuels interracial enmity and attacks on foreigners are taking place “by virtue of such “ideologists” and by courtesy of such representatives of authority, who are escalating cultural intolerance”.

In turn, Iryna Vyrtosu, Chief Editor of the Human Rights Information Centre, notes that such statements from a deputy, official, representative of authority or leader of opinions containing the language of enmity are not only inadmissible, but also entails criminal responsibility under Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine ( Violation of citizens’ equality based on their race, nationality or religious preferences).

“The problem is not only in one unreasonable statement of one person. Introducing the authorities and allowing himself such statements, the deputy in this way says: yes it is allowed to attack, insult, invoke to humiliation of other people who differ in skin color, social status or political convictions”, – Vyrtosu said.

She is also very concerned about the mention of the word “cockroaches” contained in the statements about dark-skinned foreigners. After all, this word was used to stir up ethnic hatred in Rwanda, which was the beginning of a large-scale genocide against the Tutsi people in the 1990s. It is believed that the mass media has played a key role in starting the genocide. The media was actively calling for inter-ethnic violence and murders.

As a reminder, a group of dark-skinned students, who are studying in East European National University, were attacked and beaten by unknown people on the evening of August 3 in Lutsk of the Volyn region. Three victims were hospitalized as a result.