Approximately 50 men dressed in black demolished an encampment of about 100 civic activists protesting plans to cut down trees in Kharkiv’s Gorky Park.
The attack took place on June 1 shortly before 4:00 a.m., according to the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, which said police watched the disorder instead of intervening.
Workmen turned on their chainsaws and followed the men in black into the encampment and cut down all the trees, the human rights group said.
Former Kharkiv Governor Arsen Avakov arrived at the camp, dubbed “Green Fort,” around 6:00 a.m. to support protesters, but by then there was nothing left to defend.
The Kharkiv Human Rights Group said on June 2 that it would provide legal assistance to all those detained or injured and is preparing a file civil suit against what it called “the unlawful actions of the city authorities.”
The group added a dozen or so arrested protesters were not being allowed to see lawyers.
Kharkiv natives said plans have been on the drawing board for years to build a road through the park to ease traffic on the city’s main thoroughfare Sumska Street, a 20-minute walk from Maidan Svobody.
