Council of Churches condemns crackdown on protest to support family values

Meeting of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations

On June 26, during its meeting, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations condemned the illegal actions of the police during the dispersal of peaceful protesters on June 17, who participated in the demonstration in defense of family values, reports the Institute for Religious Freedom.

The religious actors stressed that they were deeply concerned about the brutality of the police and the excess of power, which led to the beating of many peaceful protesters, not only from the right-wing radical community, but also from believers of different faiths whose heads were hit with sticks and who sustained fractures and tear gas poisoning.

According to the heads of the confessions, participants in the demonstration were unfairly detained their personal belongings being illegally searched. The Council of Churches expects a comprehensive, impartial and immediate investigation of these illegal actions of the police against peaceful protesters.

On June 17 the March of Equality took place in the center of Kiev – a parade in defense of the rights of LGBT people. The head of the Kiev police, Andrey Krishchenko, stated about 58 detained opponents of the action.

On the eve of the action, His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine, Onufry, called on the Kiev authorities to refuse holding a march of representatives of LGBT communities.

A poll of the UOC on the Web showed that Ukrainians for the main part share traditional views on the relationship between the sexes and reveal a negative attitude to the demonstration of same-sex relationships.

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