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Opposition calls for Ukrainian PM’s ouster after visit to neo-Nazi rock concert

After a concert by the band in 2018, a criminal case was opened over the display of swastikas and other Nazi symbols, as well as Nazi slogans and quotes from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini

Ukrainian Prime Minister Alexei Goncharuk EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

Ukrainian Prime Minister Alexei Goncharuk

© EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

KIEV, October 14. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Opposition Platform - For Life political party has demanded that Prime Minister Alexei Goncharuk resign after attending an event that featured the far-right extremist Ukrainian rock group, Sokyra Peruna (Perun’s Axe).

"Ukrainian Prime Minister Alexei Goncharuk’s speech at the concert of the Nazi group Sokyra Peruna before the scum of the earth openly demonstrating Nazi symbols and professing hateful, malevolent ideas is quite telling," the party said in a statement posted on its website on Monday. "The fact that the concert was organized by Andrei Medvedko who is suspected of murdering [journalist] Oles Buzina is even more telling. Opposition Platform - For Life declares: we demand the resignation of Prime Minister Goncharuk for his blatant disrespect for the Ukrainian people who were victorious over Nazism in the Great Patriotic War, for showing support for radical nationalist organizations whose activities are condemned by all sober-minded forces around the world."

For his part, Goncharuk said on his Telegram channel that his visit to the event arranged by nationalists was "a meeting with veterans." "The most important thing is that politicization is completely inappropriate here. Yesterday, I met with members of Ukraine's movement of veterans and the veterans’ community. Together with Minister Oksana Kolyada, we congratulated the veterans and talked about pressing issues. I made my contribution by raising funds for a hospital. That was a charitable event," Goncharuk noted.

After a similar concert by Sokyra Peruna in Kiev in the spring of 2018, law enforcement agencies opened a criminal case over the display of swastikas and other Nazi symbols, as well as Nazi slogans and quotes from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

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