© Getty Images / Marc Bruxelle / EyeEm
According to the official Facebook page of the movement, members of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi group arrived at the site of the festivities ten minutes after the event began, attacking the participants with pepper spray and 'zelyonka' - an antiseptic dye most famously used in 2017 against Moscow protest leader Alexey Navalny. Odessa's police department noted that members of the anti-LGBT group also threw eggs.
The organizers said that local police did not react quickly enough, but asked them to "prosecute the perpetrators" and take action against the right-wingers for "hatred and inciting violence." Sixteen people were arrested and charged with petty hooliganism and disobeying the orders of the police.
"There was no such level of aggression in previous years," they wrote on Facebook.
As well as opposing LGBT rights, Tradition and Order is actively opposed to pro-Russia, left-wing and populist politicians.
LGBT events in Ukraine have regularly been met with opposition and violence. Last year, a pride march in Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, ended in clashes between right-wing demonstrators and police officers protecting the event.
Meanwhile, in Russia, 'pride parades' don't take place at all. In 2012, they were banned in Moscow after the city government argued that such events would risk causing public disorder and that most Muscovites do not support them.
Reader Comments
Somehow, twenty years ago, there were no gay pride parades, no chicks with dicks / convicted sex offenders teaching story time to pree-K kids, and yet, somehow, there were still gay people and gay bars, imagine that.
R.C.
All they have to do is get the 99% to behave like iron filings and it's all done for them.
How do you think The British Empire was run by three men and a dog?
(Beyond that, between me and you, he'll tell you that it's not his fault, he was born that way, he can't help it, right HFL? )
R.C.
Did anyone ever tell you that your hearts in the right place, but your mediation services are not be required unless explicitly requested?
People appreciate your presence and like to read your stuff, but don't choke the fucking living daylights out of it, OK?
I thought it was more like great big gorilla burst into the room and knocked over our Martinis.