Thread by @BcatMonitoring

After 17 far-right extremists were detained after #KharkivPride violence (3 still detained), Tradition and Order (TiP) held a small rally in support of their comrades in front of Ukraine's interior ministry in Kyiv.

Also present - and front and centre - was C14's Yevhen Karas

As we wrote in a @bellingcat investigation in August, neo-Nazi C14 is bent on redefining itself, using affiliated organizations to present a sanitized image to Ukrainians, including those in mainstream politics/society who have defended and supported them

bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…

Part of this includes an apparent shift away from supporting overt violence, including against LGBT+ Ukrainians.

It also comes w/ an extreme sensitivity to criticism, more so than w/ any other far-right group we've covered (e.g., making a 3-minute propaganda video attacking us)

Then why was C14's leader front & centre? Police reports make clear: far-right extremists were detained for throwing rocks at marchers, assaulting a defenceless marcher & pepper-spraying police officers, reportedly sending 1 to hospital - he knows this

hk.npu.gov.ua/news/xuliganst…

There's also ample video evidence of what far-right extremists were up to in Kharkiv, including beating a defenceless individual, kicking them when they were trying to protect themselves on the ground.

This is what C14's leader is there defending

https://twitter.com/StudMedia/status/1173216709530005505?s=19

There are those in Ukrainian politics and society who still defend and support C14, and those in civil society who are OK working alongside C14, and those who buy into C14's rebranding efforts. Will seeing the group's undisputed leader defending violent extremists change that?