The Ukraine Security Service (SBU [9]) appears to be targeting the country's anarchist youth following an attack on a leader of the neo-fascist Right Sector [10] last year. In December, SBU agents carried out searches at the homes of seven anarchists in the cities of Kiev, Brovary, Dnipro and Lviv. SBU officers reportedly forced two anarchists to sign a "cooperation agreement," and one of the activists had her passport confiscated. Those targeted were members of the groups Black Banner and Ecological Initiative. The searches were carried out as part of an investigation into an attack on Right Sector militant Dmytro "Verbych" Ivashchenko, a veteran of the war in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region.
Ivashchenko was attacked [11] in the Podil district of Kiev on May 2 last year. Three youth wearing masks assaulted him, stabbing him in the back. Ivashchenko was hospitalized as a result of the attack, but recovered. Police identified two suspects in the attack—Kseniya Lapynska from Chernihiv and Vyacheslav Lukichev, a Russian national. Lapynska was arrested, and given a three year suspended sentence. Lukichev fled to Russia, but has since been detained by aithorities in Kaliningrad [12] for "justifying terrorism online." The charge came after he posted a statement calling Mikhail Zhlobitsky, a youth accused of planting a bomb [13] at an FSB [14] office in Arkhangelsk, a "hero." (Z [7]aborona [7] via openDemocracy [15])
