A Poltava court sentenced eleven protesters nearly a year after they clashed with police and tried to stop Ukrainian evacuees from China from entering the town of Novi Sanzhary, the National Police reported on Jan. 19.
Five of the protesters received a year’s probation and a five year suspended prison sentence. If they violate their probation, they will serve out the full term. Six others were fined and two more were cleared of all charges.
All of the suspects were involved in riots that happened last winter in Novi Sanzhary, a Ukrainian town in Poltava oblast, about 350 km east of Kyiv.
In February 2020, at the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Ukrainian travelers who were evacuated from China by airplane were required to undergo two weeks of isolation in a Novi Sanzhary sanatorium.
The sanatorium had to accommodate 45 Ukrainians and 27 foreigners, as well as the flight crew and the doctors who accompanied them.
No one from the group had tested positive for COVID-19 or showed any symptoms. Regardless, locals fearing contagion in their town took to the streets in protest.
On Feb. 20, over 200 protesters blocked some of the roads in town, setting automobile tires on fire and clashing with the police. Nine police officers and one civilian were injured in the confrontation.
Eventually, local law enforcement managed to push the protesters aside, letting the buses with evacuees through.
Angry locals then went to the sanatorium, set fires near the entrance and threw stones at the arriving buses and police officers. Some of the bus windows were broken, but no one was injured.
Local officials were also unhappy with the travelers being accommodated in Novi Sanzhary. They claimed that the sanatorium was unfit to take in potentially infected patients as it was connected to the town’s sewage system and lacked the necessary equipment to handle an outbreak.
Nevertheless, the evacuees spent two weeks in the sanatorium and were safely discharged.
