On February 10, a protest was held in Kyiv demanding the removal of the artistic director of the Young Theater Andriy Bilous, who is accused of harassment.
This is reported by the Babel correspondent.
The action began at around 10:00 a.m. near the Young Theater. The participants came with posters reading “The Theater is Not a Place for Violence”, “Don’t Be Silent”, and “Go away, Bilous!” and chanted “The Theater Must Speak” and “Cultureless Culture”.
They also collected signatures for an open letter to Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko calling for the removal of Bilous, since the theater is subordinate to the state administration.
After that, the participants marched to the Kyiv City State Administration. There, one of the participants of the action undressed under the slogan "A woman is not a prop", then law enforcement officers took her into the administration building itself. The police explained to hromadske that the girl was taken from the cold and is being checked for any administrative violations in her actions.
After that, the men, who had also come out to call for Bilousʼ removal, decided to take off their clothes.
Andriy Bilous himself, in a comment to Radio Liberty, rejected the accusations against him and emphasized that he is open to all inspections in a lawful manner, but does not agree with the fact that "decisions are made not by the court, but on social networks and at rallies".
Whatʼs happening at Karpenko-Kary University and the Young Theater
In late January, a student at Karpenko-Kary University Sofia Sapozhnik accused her teacher Andriy Bilous of harassment. She first posted an anonymous video with the accusations on January 21, and a few days later revealed her identity.
According to her, Bilous sent her intimate photos of other female students and asked her to send similar ones, "motivating it by saying that everyone had already done it."
Later, other students of the director began to share similar stories. Actor and university graduate Valeriy Filipenko, who was one of the first to start distributing the video with the story of Sapozhnik, noted that this had long been known among the "theater bubble", but everyone was silent. He called for the distribution of an anonymous form that could be filled out by all those affected by Bilousʼs actions.
Karpenko-Kary University announced on January 23 that it had filed a complaint with the police, asking law enforcement officers to “verify the disseminated information and provide it with a legal assessment”. On January 27, it became known that Bilous had been suspended from work at the university.
On February 10, the police reported that they had launched an investigation into the sexual assault charge against Bilous.
Accusations against other cultural figures
Against the backdrop of the story with Bilous, accusations began to be made against other theater figures. For example, actor and teacher at Karpenko-Kary University Yuriy Vysotsky was accused of unethical behavior and violence against students.
Oleksandr Balaban, a director and lecturer at the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts (KNUKiM), was also accused of harassment and bullying; he has already been suspended from work.
And on February 3, a graduate of KNUKiM told how rector Mykhailo Poplavsky suggested that she play billiards and, if she lost, pay either with a kiss or money.
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