Kyiv City Council has denied permission to hold this year's Kyiv Pride march to be held in the capital's metro system "for security reasons," it announced on June 3.
Organizers of the event said last week that registration for an "Equality March" was open and hoped up to 500 people would attend the event on the underground network on June 16.
Kyiv has not hosted an LGBT+ pride event since the launch of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Last year's event was hosted by Liverpool, England.
"In order not to endanger the participants and passengers, and to avoid possible provocations, the city authorities cannot allow the Equality March to take place in the metro," Kyiv's City Hall said in a statement on June 3.
It added that the metro system which doubles as an air raid shelter during Russian aerial attacks is a "dual-use facility and part of the city's critical infrastructure."
"It is always a high-risk area due to limited space, train schedule and high passenger traffic," it added.
Meanwhile in Russia, the country's Supreme Court declared "the international LGBT social movement" to be "an extremist organization" on Nov. 30, 2023 and banned all its activities.
Since then, several cases have been recorded of individuals convicted of "extremism" for displaying LGBT+ symbols.
Abbey Fenbert
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