You're reading: Ukrainian student slaps Tabachnyk with flowers (VIDEO)

Darya Stepanenko, a 17-year-old student of the prestigious Kyiv Mohyla Academy, slapped Ukrainian Minister of Education Dmytro Tabachnyk on the face with a bunch of flowers.

It happened during the summit of Council of Europe education ministers in Kyiv on Sept. 22.

The teenager came up to Tabachnyk, saying she wanted to thank him for all he’d done for Ukrainian culture and education and then struck him in the face with the bouquet.

“It was a protest,” explained Stepanenko to journalists who circled around her after she was taken from the building by police officers. “Not only my protest, but also a protest of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, St.Luka’s brotherhood and of all those people who are not happy with him holding the position of Educational Minister.”

Stepanenko also said she’d been working on her punch for three days leading up to the incident.

According to member of parliament Andriy Parubiy, Stepanenko was detained but released because she is a minor. “She was accused of hooliganism,” Parubiy said. “They [police] assured they will contact her later.”

Tabachnyk took the incident with ease, according to the Ukrayinska Pravda website.

“There was no incident,” Tabachnyk told a press conference on Sept.22. “She was laughing charmingly, saying she wants to give me the flowers, and then started nervously poke me with those flowers. I take it calmly and normally.”

Kyiv Mohyla Academy has got a longstanding conflict with Tabachnyk because of his education policies. The university even sued the Education Ministry on Aug. 28 for cutting government-sponsored scholarships, which university leaders saw as retribution for the university’s academic independence. Moreover, Tabachnyk is criticized for pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian views.

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Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]