Kyiv cinema emblazoned with Azov symbols for advertising an LGBT film

The wall of the Zhovten cinema. Photo: FB page of the cinema

On 11 February 2024, unknown people emblazoned advertising posters "Lessons in Tolerance" on Kyiv's Zhovten cinema with the symbols of "Azov" and inscriptions "LGBT = Russians", representatives of the cinema said on Facebook.

The administration disagreed with the vandals' inscriptions and, in turn, accused them of Russian propaganda.

"While our nation is fighting for its freedom, for freedom of expression, democracy, for respect for personal choice – some of our fellow citizens still support Russian narratives, because it is there that representatives of the LGBT community are persecuted and banned," complained in "Zhovten".

According to the administration, the vandals with their "caveman" actions against LGBT "pull the country back to the Soviet abyss, to the Soviet Union, where there was no sex and not only that."

In 2014, there was a fire in Zhovten. The administration claimed arson because of the demonstration of LGBT-themed films. The then Minister of Culture Yevhen Nishchuk qualified arson as"a challenge to the entire cultural community of the capital, which must unite". "Together we must do everything to make sure that this cinema is not just rebuilt, but that it continues to work in the direction of promoting high artistic film culture," Nishchuk said at the time.

Earlier the UOJ wrote that the Ministry of Culture painted its logo in LGBT colours.

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