Xenophobia in Ukraine

As statistical studies show, in the interethnic consciousness more than 50% of the population of all regions of the country is dominated by isolationist sentiments, while direct xenophobic attitudes are noted in no less than 25% of Ukrainians ^[3] . The basis of national isolationism, which dominates the mass interethnic consciousness of Ukrainians, is archaic-traditionalist values ​​that predetermine the formation and development of social relations in Ukrainian society ^[4] .

The majority of the population of Ukraine (about 75%) prefers among their fellow citizens to see only representatives of East Slavic ethnic groups, who traditionally lived in Ukrainian territories. About half of the inhabitants of the country do not object to certain nationalities that have historical experience living together with Ukrainians: Jews, Poles, Crimean Tatars, Moldavians ^[4] .

Nevertheless, in accordance with the results of statistical studies of the Ukrainian population, the values ​​of the integral index of national distance indicate the prevalence of open xenophobic sentiments in Ukrainian society. Monitoring of dynamics shows that since 1992 the level of national distance between Ukrainians has led to an increase in national isolationism and the prevalence of xenophobic stereotypes. In 2002, there was an explosive increase in national distance from almost all ethnic groups. In 2005, there was a slight decrease in these sentiments against most nationalities by an average of one to two percent, which led to a decrease in the average level of national isolation from 5.3 to 5.1 points ^[3] .

The European Commission and numerous non-governmental organizations have noted an increase in racial hatred and xenophobia in Ukraine, and especially in Kiev. The specific nature of these manifestations covers a wide range of unlawful acts, from verbal abuse to harm to health and even murder ^[5] .

One of the outbursts of xenophobic sentiments in Ukraine was recorded in 2012 against the background of the European football championship. Football matches and championship festive events were accompanied by an influx of foreign guests who were more interested in Ukrainian women of easy virtue (see sex tourism in Ukraine ) than sporting events. In this regard, the appearance of street gangs that attacked clients of Ukrainian prostitutes (see prostitution in Ukraine ), beat them and recorded beatings on video for subsequent posting on the Internet was noted ^{[6] [7]} .

According to the OSCE, Ukraine does not have a sufficient arsenal of legal means to combat racism and xenophobia due to the legislative requirement to provide evidence of intentional actions aimed at fanning ethnic hatred. As a result, law enforcement agencies prefer to qualify manifestations of racism in the course of investigative procedures as banal hooliganism or as other, easier to prove varieties of violations of the law ^[8] . Many Ukrainian human rights activists claim that cases of racial or ethnic motivation are not investigated effectively, and law enforcement agencies consider work in this direction as a waste of time. In this regard, the only sentence for a hate crime is highlighted when, on March 24, 2015, the Kiev district court of Odessa sentenced the 19-year-old coordinator of the local cell of the nationalist movement “Fashionable Sentence” for killing a LGBT person to seven years in prison ^[9] .

The Ukrainian Helsinki Committee draws attention to the fact that the Ukrainian security forces systematically unreasonably detain black people for the purpose of checking documents, while people with light skin color are not inspected ^[8] . Especially often gypsies become targets of attacks and unlawful activities (see Gypsies in Ukraine ). The Ukrainian police deliberately track Gypsies, are on duty at their places of residence, knowing that many of them do not have documents, send them to places of detention where they are extorted money for their release ^[10] . According to Western researchers, the functioning of the Security Service of Ukraine is not very different from the work of the police and other bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Within the framework of this system, undemocratic methods borrowed from the KGB era of the Soviet era and the tsarist secret police are often used, and the whole organizational culture is saturated with xenophobia, spy mania and conspiracy theories ^[11] .

A multi-page report jointly prepared by Equal Rights Trust and the LGBT human rights center Our World indicates that such an attitude of Ukrainian security officials towards black-skinned foreigners and people of different nationalities is very widespread in Ukraine. For example, according to the Kharkiv human rights group, at least 79% of their respondents were detained by Ukrainian police because of their skin color and appearance different from the local population. 45% of detainees were released only after they paid a bribe to police officers (see corruption in Ukraine ) ^{[12] [13]} .

The human rights organization Amnesty International believes that manifestations of racial intolerance in Ukraine take place under the influence of neo-Nazis , skinheads and Ukrainian nationalist organizations ^[8] . Foreign students studying in Ukraine testify that they are often victims of skinhead attacks and are beaten. At the same time, according to students, xenophobic attitudes in Ukrainian society are on the rise, and society itself is easily reconciled with aggression towards visitors ^[5] . In this aspect, Ukrainian human rights activists point out that as early as 2002-2005, aggressive xenophobia and neo-Nazism in youth subcultures were not an acute problem and were not systemic in nature. However, since 2006 there has been a sharp surge in street violence motivated by racial and ethnic hatred. Moreover, he was preceded by a gradual increase in the total number of crimes with a xenophobic context ^[14] . On this occasion, the press repeatedly quoted the statement of the Ambassador of Canada to Ukraine Roman Vashchuk ^[15] :

A certain role in the cultivation of such sentiments is played by the Ukrainian mass media, whose policy makes it possible to very emotionally cover the facts of the detention of migrants who have violated the law, and the activities of law enforcement agencies aimed at combating illegal migration. An analysis of publications in 55 national and 88 regional publications for 2004-2006 shows that readers are intimidated by threats of illegal migration, although there is no danger among the facts cited there ^[8] .

• Anti-Semitism in Ukraine
• Gender Equality in Ukraine
• LGBT Rights in Ukraine
• Sexism in Ukraine

• Likhachev V. Xenophobia and National Extremism in Ukraine - 2013 . - Information and analytical report on the results of monitoring. - Kiev, 2013.
• Malinovskaya O. Transit illegal migration: Ukraine / I. Molodikova, F. Duvel. - Transit migration and transit countries: theory, practice and regulatory policy. - “University Book”, 2009. - S. 130. - 392 p. - ISBN 978-5-98699-096-5 .
• Panina N. Factors of national identity, tolerance, xenophobia and anti-Semitism in modern Ukraine (Rus.) // Bulletin of public opinion : journal. - 2006. - January-February ( t. 81 ). - S. 28 .
• Xenophobia, radicalism and hate crimes in Europe in 2015 . - M .: Edithus, 2016.
• T. Kuzio. Ukraine: Democratization, Corruption, and the New Russian Imperialism. - Santa Barbara, Denver: Praeger Security International, 2015 .-- ISBN 978-1-4408-3502-5 .
• B. Vollmer. Ukrainian Migration and the European Union: Dynamics, Subjectivity, and Politics . - Springer, 2016 .-- 194 p. - (Political Science). - ISBN 9781137489388 .
• In the Crosscurrents. Addressing Discrimination and Inequality in Ukraine . - London: Stroma Ltd., 2015 .-- (The Equal Rights Trust Country Report). - ISBN 978-0-09573458-4-3.

• Is there xenophobia in Ukraine? Jewish observer
• Xenophobia in Ukraine unties Euroskeptics hands Human Rights Information Center
• Xenophobia in Ukraine: from hostility to hatred
• Dangerous trends: cases of xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Ukraine EurAsia Daily