Video footage and witness accounts of the violent dispersal of a Roma camp on Lysa Hora by neo-Nazi C14 thugs emerged on 25 April which were in stark contrast to the version of events presented by the Head of the Kyiv Police, Andriy Kryshchenko. By evening on April 25, the police finally announced that a criminal investigation had been initiated after days of implausible denial. The events have elicited strong, and sometimes worrying, reactions on social media. It may be arguable whether a Roma camp should be allowed to exist on the territory of a nature reserve, but it was indisputably not the prerogative of a band of neo-Nazi C14 ‘activists’ to have dispersed it and set fire to the families’ tents.
The video posted by LB.ua shows whole families running in terror from young men, many in masks, hurling stones and spraying gas canisters in the direction where families with some very small children were trying to take shelter. One Roma man tries to hold a thin branch in defense, but clearly understands that he is outnumbered and also moves away.
