Activists from women’s rights group Femen in Kyiv. Photo: Reuters A court in Kyiv fined three activists of Femen, the Ukrainian feminist organisation known for its bare-breasted protests, and a Russian photojournalist, and released them after their weekend arrest. Femen said the women had been beaten and kidnapped when they were arrested and had been targeted by Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, to prevent protests during a visit to Kyiv by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church, who have been accosted by Femen members in the past. Police >>>

Three activists with the radical feminist Femen movement and a Russian photographer have spent the night in police custody after being detained on July 27. The four were fined by a Kyiv court on July 28 for hooliganism and disobeying an order from police and then released. The group claimed on July 28 that the four had been snatched off a street in Kyiv by unknown assailants in civilian clothes the previous afternoon. Femen activist Anna Hutsol was present outside the courthouse when the four were released. With her right eye blackened and nearly swollen shut from a beating she received on July >>>

A court in Kyiv has fined Russian reporter Dmitry Kostyukov and three activists of the FEMEN movement, detained on Saturday, defense attorney Yaroslav Yatsenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Sunday. “The activists have been each fined UAH 85 and Kostyukov UAH 136,” he told Interfax-Ukraine. “The hearings lasted long, the FEMEN activists testified, and then two policemen were questioned as witnesses, who claimed that the women had been walking around topless,” he said. “But their evidence broke apart as one of the witnesses did not recognize Kostyukov, while the other recognized >>>

Femen said that the women had been beaten and kidnapped when they were arrested and that they had been targeted by Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, to prevent protests during a visit to Kyiv by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox church, who have been accosted by Femen members in the past. Police said that the women, Oksana Shachko, Alexandra Shevchenko, and Yana Zhdanova, were detained by a patrol car after officers spotted them naked and arrested them for “petty hooliganism” after they failed to cover up. The photojournalist, >>>

Femen, which originated in Ukraine, sends attractive young women out to remove their tops at protests, exposing slogans written across their breasts and backs.But this approach has riled right wingers in Kyiv, who recently assaulted Femen supporter and political scientist Viktor Svyatsky.According to a report in the Mail Online, he was attacked close to Femen’s headquarters and may have suffered a broken jaw.His assailants allegedly declared that “the girls will be next” if there were any Femen protests when Russian president Vladimir Putin visited the city.The following day, Femen posted a notice >>>

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovich attend a ceremony celebrating Navy Day in Sevastopol yesterday.AFP/KyivA photographer and three members of the feminist movement Femen known for their bare-breasted protests were illegally held in police custody overnight after being abducted by unknown assailants during Vladimir Putin’s visit to Ukraine, the group said yesterday. Police denied the four were snatched off the streets of the Ukranian capital Kyiv in broad daylight on Saturday. A police spokesman said they were detained when the topless >>>