September 19, 2005
Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko has denied that anti-Semitism was a problem in his country, but he promised to treat the issue with the utmost seriousness. The comments were made in New York just days after a rabbi and his son were beaten in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. Jewish leaders said it was the latest in a recent series of anti-Semitic attacks, though police regarded it was simply hooliganism. "There is no such problem as anti-Semitism or other manifestations of xenophobia in Ukraine," Yushchenko told reporters in Philadelphia, where he was awarded the city's Liberty Medal. Nevertheless, he said, he would "treat the problem of anti-Semitism attentively and responsibly. Ukraine is a European country and takes a European approach to any problems that emerge in society," he said.
Last month, skinheads severely beat a Jewish student in Kiev who was later handed over in coma to a Tel Aviv hospital to undergo a brain surgery. Yushchenko condemned the attack and ordered top officials to take charge of the case. Three people have been arrested on charges of hooliganism. In Philadelphia, Yushchenko also said that the recent attacks were not ethnically motivated.
