Ukrainian court sentences three neo-Nazis to 10 and 10.5 years for deadly attack on a Romani encampment in Lviv seven years ago
Three perpetrators of a brutal attack on a Romani encampment in Lviv, Ukraine in 2018 have been sentenced to prison seven years after committing their crimes. The District Court in Sykhiv sent two assailants to prison for 10 years, while the main organizer got 10 years and six months.
The verdict has yet to take effect. The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) reported the news on 9 May.
During the late night hours of Saturday, 23 June and the early morning hours of Sunday, 24 June 2018, a group of men armed with wooden sticks, knives, hammers, metal pipes, and chains committed the attack on a Romani encampment in the forest near Trusavecka Street on the outskirts of Lviv. According to the Ukrainian media, the assault was coordinated and pre-planned – the attackers prepared for it the day before in local garages, divvying up their roles, their weapons, and the masks they wore.
During their attack the neo-Nazis destroyed the Romani people’s tents; one dragged several siblings out of a tent and stabbed a 10-year-old Romani boy in the thigh. Another member of the group stabbed a Romani man three times in the back and chest, while another beat a victim with a hammer.
The attack cost one human life, 24-year-old David Pap, who was stabbed to death. Police arrested seven minors between the ages of 16 and 17 and the 20-year-old organizer after the assault.
The investigation revealed that a total of 11 persons were involved in the attack. Criminal proceedings were begun for intentional murder, hooliganism, incitement to hatred, and involving minors in crime.
The court remanded eight suspects into custody without bail. The appellate court left six of them in custody and released two to house arrest.
In 2019, two attackers were released without receiving any kind of punishment.
Neo-Nazis admit guilt, show no remorse, but it takes seven years to try them
The District Court in Pustomyty in Lviv Oblast gave suspended sentences to three of the attackers in 2023. The case of the last three defendants was not heard until April 2025 by the District Court in Sykhiv.
The main organizer got 10 years and six months in prison, while the other two were each sentenced to 10 years. They were all ordered to pay UAH 145,300 [EUR 3,150] for the costs of their trial.
The attackers never expressed any remorse to the court. They admitted their guilt and confirmed that they had established an ultra-right group that set itself the goal of violently murdering Romani people.
Bias attacks are quite serious and frequently ignored. Have you become the victim of bias crime in the Czech Republic? Call the toll-free phone line of the In IUSTITIA organization, 800 922 922, or contact the ROMEA organization.
The trial covered just one of at least five brutal attacks which were committed against Romani people in Kyiv, Lviv and Ternopil in 2018. Police did not respond to many of those assaults and even collaborated with the attackers on some of them.
Police observe ultra-right attacks in real time, Roma left to the mercy of the violent
The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHRPG) revealed there was an agreement on cooperation between the C14, a far-right group, and the administration of the municipal department of Holosiiv in Kyiv. It was C14 in particular who attacked Romani people in Kyiv on the Lysa Hora nature preserve.
In the other cases, strange men went to Romani encampments and warned their inhabitants that they must leave immediately or suffer the consequences. Authorities later called these intimidating visits “explanatory operations” which were allegedly undertaken by city employees, police, and security units.
There is also video footage showing Kyiv police officers watching an attack on a Romani encampment, laughing at a child and a woman who are fleeing and asking them if they plan to eat dogs. The officers calmly converse with the assailants, who are chanting “Glory to the nation! Death to the enemy!”
“I don’t trust the police. The next day, I saw the police officer drinking coffee with one of the guys who attacked our camp. One of the guys who attacked us threatened to even find us underground if we dare to complain to the police,” a victim of the pogrom in Ternopil told ERRC observers.
On the basis of these events, the ERRC and the National Roma Centre sued the Ukrainian National Police. They accused its officers of violating the European Charter on Human Rights and other international obligations; per the ERRC lawsuit, the police failed their duty to protect the Roma from violence motivated by racism.
“Seven years on, the organiser of one of these pogroms received a sentence of 10 years and six months, with credit for time already spent in pretrial detention, meaning he will walk free before his 30th birthday. Meanwhile, they stole David Pap’s chance of ever reaching 30. Not a single one of these brutal assaults has been officially recognised as a hate crime. Racially motivated attacks against Roma in Ukraine are routinely dismissed as ‘hooliganism’ with authorities turning a blind eye instead of investigating and prosecuting these acts as hate crimes. The ERRC has long raised this alarm: hate crimes are being downplayed, and Romani lives remain disregarded and systematically devalued within the criminal legal system,” says Judit Ignácz of the ERRC.
“This sentencing marks a significant and long-overdue step toward justice. However, not recognising and denying the racial motive behind violence is not neutrality; it is complicity. Justice for Roma means naming racism, prosecuting it, and ending the impunity,” Ignácz said.
