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A Russian man reportedly beat up two Ukrainian women in France for listening to Ukrainian music, the Embassy of Ukraine said.
In a Facebook post, Volodymyr Kohutiak, the Vice President of the Union of Ukrainians in France, said the incident occurred Sunday night in the municipality of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Kohutiak also included a photo of the two victims in the post.
“Yesterday at 22:30, in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, two Ukrainian girls were beaten by Russians for listening to Ukrainian music,” Kohutiak wrote in the post.
Local news outlet Monaco-Matin identified the victims as Alina and her mother Olena. Both Ukrainian women came to France from the city of Izium in Kharkiv Oblast on April 19. At the time, Russian troops had already occupied Izium.
According to Alina’s recollection, she and her mother had been strolling along the embankment and listening to Ukrainian music on their phone when they met four men, one of whom attacked them.
“One of the men ran towards us. He punched me in the face. I fell to the ground, and he kicked me. He hit my mother three times,” Alina recalled in an interview with European Pravda, adding that the attacker was a Russian. “When he spoke, we understood.”
Olena suffered a broken nose and Alina sustained injuries in her legs and head from the incident. Both victims received medical assistance.
On Monday evening, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said the Ukrainian embassy in Paris now has special control over the investigation of the attack.
“Diplomats are interacting with the French law enforcement officers for the prompt investigation of the attack, maintaining contact with the victims, who were provided with the necessary medical assistance. The attackers must be punished,” he wrote in a statement.
The incident comes amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was launching the invasion of Ukraine, which he called a “special military operation,” with the aim of “demilitarizing” and “de-Nazifying” the former Soviet country.
Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and current top Kremlin adviser, had tweeted in July that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was under the influence of “psychotropic substances.” The tweet was deleted later.
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