May 15 was supposed to be a relaxing Saturday evening at 31 Nyzhnoiurkivska St., a former ribbon factory that has been transformed into an art and entertainment hub.
Located in the vibrant Podil district, the location is a prime hangout for Kyiv’s ravers, art lovers, youths and creatives. That night, two concerts were scheduled for 8 p.m. in two of the hub’s popular venues, Closer and Mezzanine, well before the mandatory 10 p.m. closing time demanded by the city’s current safety measures to curtain the coronavirus.
But the audience didn’t get to enjoy the music. Instead, they saw an entire bus of police officers in black masks and riot gear swarm in and shove to the ground the first man that approached them.
The raid had begun.
Repeated raids
It’s not clear why the police showed up at the former factory, which also contains the Savage Food restaurant, the 20ft Radio broadcasting station, the Tsaptsarap tattoo parlor and two more small clubs, Otel’ and 2c1b.
According to Sasha Varenitsa, a promoter and music manager who was working the concert at Closer that night, the raid started at about 9 p.m., despite the organizers’ explanations that the concert will wrap up before 10 p.m.
Varenitsa wrote on Facebook that the police showed no warrant when they burst into Closer, holding machine guns.
According to Closer’s statement, the police beat up several employees, conducted an unauthorized search at 2c1b, where nothing was happening, and forced guests of the hub’s various establishments to leave.
Nearly a week later, the police still haven’t addressed the raid publicly. The Kyiv Post reached out to the police for comment on the matter but hasn’t heard back.
On the same night that 31 Nyzhnoiurkivska St. was raided, several parties were happening illegally, past 10 p.m., with some held in Podil. Although there was some police presence near these events, according to witnesses, none of them faced the same problems as Closer.
Varenitsa believes it to be abuse of power and selective justice.
“All of Kyiv sparkled with the lights of parties, events and festivals for every taste yesterday,” reads his May 16 Facebook post. “In this situation, one word comes to mind: racketeering.”
Sergey Yatsenko, one of the founders and commercial director of Closer, says that many establishments are open at night but avoid raids because they probably have a deal with the police. “We do not have that,” he told the Kyiv Post.
This wasn’t the first time the law enforcement raided Closer, as well as Otel’ and 2c1b. According to Closer’s statement, the police showed up at 31 Nyzhnoiurkivska St. multiple times during the pandemic, sometimes beating the center’s employees.
Other venues in Podil have previously complained about police harassment as well. Keller Bar said it was raided by about 70 officers in November, with police breaking its gates and doors, putting visitors’ faces to the floor, beating and undressing some of them. Another bar, HVLV, has been experiencing police disruptions “almost on a daily basis” during the pandemic.
Increased violence
Police harassing people in Podil neighborhood is nothing new, according to Yatsenko.
The Closer director says that officers come to the area from all over Kyiv to search party-goers and “make money.”
“They most often stop teenagers, 18-20-year-olds who don’t know better,” Yatsenko says.
The same day Closer was raided, two minors were roughly detained by police, who, according to witnesses, were listening to music on the street. Video footage published by onlookers shows officers roughly seizing one of the teens and telling him to behave better while hitting him on the head.
Another video shows an officer throwing a packet of something into a teenager’s pocket while putting him into the police car. Police later stated that the officer did not throw anything into the pocket but rather was returning money that the boy had lost.
These types of round-ups have been happening more often recently, according to Dmytro Buhaichuk, a local artist and musician, who walks Podil’s Kyrylivska Street every day to get to his studio.
“This past week every single day people were getting held up or arrested. One day, people were lined up in a row,” Buhaichuk told the Kyiv Post.
On May 18, after finishing up a studio rehearsal, Buhaichuk and the drummer from the group said their goodbyes and parted ways. Before they could walk two meters, Buhaichuk was suddenly approached by police, he says.
An officer asked him to walk towards the car, and when Buhaichuk asked what was the reason for the approach, he says he was struck in the head. He fell to the ground and lost consciousness. He would stay there, lying in his own blood, for about three hours.
“He (police officer) was sitting on me, very painfully with his knee between my shoulder-blades, I was lying in my blood, I was scared for my life,” Buhaichuk says. “I started to scream very loudly, asking for help.”
Paramedics treat Kyiv artist and musician Dmytro Buhaichuk, who received a broken nose from a police officer during his detention on May 18, 2021, on Kyrylivska Street in Podil district. After he was held down for three hours, according to witnesses, paramedics were finally called onto the scene to help the artist. (Courtesy)
And the help arrived. A crowd gathered and started to stream and videotape the events.
The police posted an official statement on their website on May 19, claiming that they had spotted two suspicious people, who started to run away upon seeing the officers.
The police says that Buhaichuk resisted arrest, with drugs falling out of his pocket, which he denies. He’s now being investigated for illegal drug possession. If found guilty, Buhaichuk faces up to five years in prison.
According to Buhaichuk, the police group did not give any reason for detaining him until the Patrol Police, which had been called by the onlookers, showed up.
In a May 19 statement, the police said it started an internal investigation into whether the officers that detained Buhaichuk abused their power.
But that hasn’t satisfied the Podil community, outraged by recent police brutality in their district.
Last straw
Buhaichuk’s incident became a breaking point for Podil.
The following day, the district’s creative community, including Closer, Keller Bar, HVLV and others, released a joint statement condemning the police’s actions and announcing a protest. A total of 15 businesses and organizations eventually joined in arranging the event.
Called “Let’s stop the police safari in Podil!” the demonstration will take place near the district’s police department on May 21.
The statement lists the police raids and acts of brutality that Podil residents and businesses experienced during the pandemic.
The organizers want to hold the head of the Podil district police, Pavlo Vasylenko, accountable. The group claims that Vasylenko is responsible for creating the special purpose unit called Kyiv that has been violently raiding Podil recently.
“We, the creative communities of Podil, will not tolerate the arbitrariness of the police,” the statement reads.
According to the statement, the Kyiv regiment was formed of former members of Berkut, a notorious riot police force that violently beat protesters during the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
Anna Strashok, the Podil police’s press officer, told the Kyiv Post that Vasylenko had no connection to the Kyiv regiment but didn’t comment further.
The protesters will call for Vasylenko’s dismissal and prosecution of the officers involved in the raids of Podil businesses and Bohaichuk’s detention.
“We need to start from the top,” Yatsenko said, adding that they see a possibility for negotiations with law enforcement after Vasylenko is removed.
The incidents sparked outrage on social media, with many Ukrainians expressing support for the Podil community and creating protest art.
Nearly 2,000 people have marked themselves as “going” to the protest’s event on Facebook, with over 5,400 people marking themselves as “interested,” and more agreeing to attend each day.
Buhaichuk said he wasn’t comfortable with thousands seeing him being humiliated on video. But he hopes that some good comes out of the brutal attack.
“I hope it resonates and I hope that we put them in their place.”
