What to do while in Ukraine

Femen activists has brought to Venice Film "- Ukraine is not a brothel". Kitty Green is director of the film. During the presentation, they staged another protest topless. The 70th Venice International Film Festival runs from 28 August to 7 September on the island of Lido in Italy. In August the FEMEN movement   decided to hide its activities in Ukraine and extend it abroad.

Ukraine is planning to open a decommissioned airport near Uman for Bretslaver chasidim. The airport of Cherkasy Oblast, the central Ukrainian district where Uman is located, may be reopened as soon as next year, spokesperson Nicholas Sukhovoj told the Israeli Russian-language newspaper Vesti.  The move would help alleviate traffic from the Odessa-Kiev highway that Bretslavers currently use to travel to Uman, the burial place of Rebbe Nachman, the founder of the Breslav chasidic movement. “The airport is in good condition and only needs lights on the runway,” Sukhovoj said. Some 25,000 Bretslavers converge in Uman each year ahead of Rosh Hashana, to pray near Rebbe Nachman’s grave. The option of running extra trains to Uman is also being discussed, as many visitors reportedly face difficulties in reaching their destination in time. Uman Mayor Peter Payevsky told the news site on Thursday that he expected more than 800 buses to arrive in Uman in the coming days, with 7,000 people d

GOVERNMENT PERSECUTION HAS  forced Femen founders to flee Ukraine, where the militant feminist group was created in 2008. According to a  statement  on the Femen website, they were "systematically harassed, severely beaten, kidnapped, and repeatedly received threats" in July. Femen maintains that Russian and Ukrainian special services perpetrated these acts under instructions from Russian president Vladimir Putin and his close ally, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. "FEMEN officially says fuck off to all dictators," the group declares defiantly on its website. Femen reveals that Yana Zhdanova, Anna Hutsol, and Alexandra Shevchenko were summoned on August 30 to face charges. According to an  interview  cofounder Shevchenko granted to the  Kyiv Post , the three women, along with Femen's Iksana Shachko, had escaped to Paris. Last month, the  Straight   reported  that Femen supporter Viktor Svyatsky, a Ukrainian political scientist, was assaulte

The Ukrainian organisers of the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Kiev were left red-faced Thursday after mistakenly playing the Russian national anthem to celebrate the victory of a Ukrainian gymnast. Ukrainian Ganna Rizatdinova, who won gold in the individual hoop in the first day of competition Wednesday, started to sing the words to the anthem on top of the podium when she realised that that music was that of the anthem of Russia, not Ukraine. A brief confused smile on the athlete's face was replaced by indignation as the hall of the Kiev Palace of Sports erupted with the jeers and catcalls of disgruntled Ukrainians. Championship organisers switched on the right track a few seconds later and the Ukrainian anthem was played out at full volume. Ukrainian state TV said it had been planned to use the Russian anthem for the winner of the individual ball competition, which a Russian athlete had won. "I was so upset and even a little bit offended... M

Ukrainian topless feminist group Femen accused the police of planting explosives and a gun during a raid on their headquarters in Kiev headquarters yesterday in a bid to close their organisation down. The Femen group specialises in shock bare-breast appearances to dramatise women’s rights causes, mainly in the male-dominated hierarchies of Russia and its former Soviet allies. Russia’s Vladimir Putin has particularly been a target for Femen’s protests since the prosecution of the Russian female punk group Pussy Riot last year. A police statement in Kiev said a group of explosives experts were sent to Femen’s headquarters in central Kiev yesterday after an anonymous call. Objects resembling a World War Two pistol and grenade were found during a search, it said. Officers at the scene said they had also found leaflets showing the profiles of Putin and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill pictured in snipers’ cross-hairs. Femen activists denounced the police finds