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Three FEMEN activists and a journalist accompanying them have been arrested in what the organization calls a kidnapping but local authorities describe as a response to disorderly conduct.

At around 4:00 p.m. on Saturday July 27, 2013, a group of patrolling officers encountered a group of three young women that were “wandering naked” in the company of a young man with a camera on Obolonsky Prospekt in Kyiv, Interfax Ukraine reported. The police officers reportedly asked the trio – FEMEN activists Oksana Shachko, Alexandra Shevchenko and Yana Zhdanova – to cover themselves. The three women reportedly ignored the police officers, who proceeded to arrest them on charges of disorderly conduct.

The
photographer who was accompanying them, Dmitry Kostyukov, was also arrested on
charges of disobeying law enforcement officials, according to the Interfax
Ukraine report.

Through an appeal posted to their website and social media
pages FEMEN described the event as a kidnapping, claiming the three activists
and photojournalist were severely beaten and driven off in a car in an unknown
direction.

According to Denis Sinyakov, a colleague of Kostyukov who obtained a comment from him via workers at a hospital where Kostyukov and Shachko are to be kept until early Sunday, July 28, they had just left their house when several men came to beat them up, punching Shachko in the chest and Kostyukov in the face, and forced them into their car. Posting on Facebook, Sinyakov also noted that Kostyukov told him the FEMEN trio would face trial at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning at the Obolon Court.

Kyiv
municipal authorities were not immediately available for comment.

Known for
its provocative bare-breasted acts, FEMEN has frequently staged protests
against the appearance of Russian political officials and religious
authorities, particularly Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kiril. A high-profile protest also took place at a
Hanover trade fair earlier this year, attended by German Chancellor Angela
Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Both Putin
and Kiril were in Kyiv on Saturday to celebrate the 1,025th
anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus. Kiril’s presence in particular was
not well met by all Ukrainians, with the Svoboda party organizing a protest
against the presence of the religious figure, whose title is the Patriarch of
Moscow and all Rus (covering Russia, Ukraine and Belarus), a claim they see as
impinging on Ukraine’s religious sovereignty.

The Russian
Orthodox Church views the two main Ukrainian Orthodox Churches as renegades.
Meanwhile, many criticize the Moscow-based organization as usurping the Kyivan
heritage of orthodoxy, as well as the name Russia itself. Tellingly, the
Russian visitors to Kyiv celebrated the 1,025th anniversary of the
Baptism of Rus.

Ahead of
the celebrations FEMEN leader Anna Hutsol claims to have been punched and
having her dog stolen earlier during the day on July 27, an act she believes
was meant to intimidate the organization ahead of the high-profile
celebrations.

Three days
earlier, on July 24, male FEMEN activist Viktor Svyatskiy was brutally beaten,
leaving him with a broken jaw and missing teeth. Speaking to Radio
Free Europe, he also said the attack was linked to the celebrations of the
Baptism of Kyivan Rus.