Fearing political persecution and their lives, four FEMEN activists have fled Ukraine for France, Alexandra Shevchenko, a founding member of the group told the Kyiv Post by phone.
"Yes, me, Anna (Hutsol), Yana (Zhdanova) and Oksana (Shachko) have escaped from Ukraine to France, to our Parisian training base," Shevchenko said.
The feminist group said in a statement through their French branch that starting in July they have been subject to “systemic persecution, violent beatings, and continuous threats” from Ukrainian and Russian intelligence services “on the order of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and (Ukrainian President Viktor) Yanukovych as revenge for our active anti-dictatorship Femen activity in eastern Europe.”
Speaking from FEMEN’s Paris training center, Shevchenko said they left the country on Thursday, Aug. 29.
Shevchenko said she and the other three are unsure about their plans, but it is possible that they will seek asylum in France. First, though, they must remain in the country for six months.
Inna Shevchenko, another FEMEN founder who is not related to Alexandra Shevchenko and who heads the group’s Paris branch, received asylum form France earlier this year.
The decision to flee Ukraine came days after a raid of FEMEN’s headquarters in Kyiv on Aug. 27 by police, during which a World War II-era pistol and a grenade were discovered. The Shevchenko district police said they had received an anonymous tip that the group was in possession of an explosive.
Shevchenko told the Kyiv Post by phone on Aug. 27 that the raid appeared staged and that the weapon and explosive had been planted.
“When I saw how they were searching, it was like a show, a scene from a movie, and the police and SBU (security service) were like actors – they came in, and skipped two rooms and went almost exactly to the spot where they uncovered a (grenade),” she said. “These items were clearly planted.”
As a result, a criminal case was opened against the activists under Article 263, “illegal possession of weapons,” an offense punishable by up to five years in prison.
Also this month, FEMEN’s activists and a colleague of the group endured multiple, violent attacks, first in Kyiv, and later in Odesa.
As a result of these incidents, the radical feminist group, known for staging topless political protests, announced that it would close its Ukrainian headquarters in central Kyiv.
The group emphasized in a statement, however, that “such repression will not stop the active movement in Ukraine, Russia and other dictatorial states.”
(This article was updated to reflect statements that Alexandra Shevchenko gave to the Kyiv Post.)
Kyiv Post editor Christopher J. Miller can be reached at [email protected], and on Twitter at @ChristopherJM.
