You're reading: Lviv anti-fascists give up plans to stage mass events on May 9

 The Lviv branch of the Ukrainian Anti-Fascist Committee will not seek permission to hold mass events on May 9, the Lviv organization's leader, Oleksandr Kalyniuk, told Interfax-Ukraine on May 5. "I am not going to file applications in order to avoid being blamed for plotting provocations and to escape troubles in court," he said.

 Kalyniuk said this decision was made after he met with officials from the Lviv regional administration.

He said he had been planning to meet with the Lviv regional governor,
Iryna Sekh. But she refused to receive us, he said. Instead, talks were
held with the head of the public relations department Dmytro Posypanko.

“We spent two hours talking and we failed to come to terms. Officials
told us to refrain from holding mass events, not to distribute Russian
black-and-orange victory ribbons, and not to raise the Victory Banner
because, they said, our opponents would arrive and provoke unrest,”
Kalyniuk said.

But he said that he would come to Glory Hill with the Victory banner
and a Russian victory ribbon to pay tribute to the heroes killed in the
Soviet Union’s Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany.

“My grandfather was killed in 1945, my father was at war. Almost all
of my relatives fought in the war. Why should I care about anyone? Why
should I hide? Why should I listen to the Right or Left sector? The law
allows me to do this,” he said.