In Kyiv, students protested against the rector of KNU Bugrov after the appearance of a sex video.
On April 1, a protest against the rector of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Volodymyr Bugrov, is underway in Kyiv after a sex video allegedly showing him in one of the university’s classrooms appeared online.
Several hundred students gathered for a rally under the Red Building of the university. They brought cardboard posters with images of Bugrov, which, in particular, compared him to American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and chanted “KNU is not a brothel”, “Bugrov is for examination”, “Listen to the students or leave”.
In addition to the sex scandal, the University’s Student Parliament also expresses complaints about the administration’s general communication. In particular, they are talking about the unsatisfactory condition of the university’s dormitories and buildings.
In a comment to a hromadske journalist, the KNU rector said that he “respects the right of students to protest”, but, according to him, “sees no grounds” for this. He stated that “in the opinion of many people who are watching this from the side, this protest is inspired to put pressure on me” against the backdrop of the announced rector elections.
Bugrov also claims that some representatives of the student government are allegedly involved in the election campaign. In addition, he believes that the “lion’s share” of those who do not support him are people outside the university who, according to him, do not know “what is really happening here, that the university has entered the Shanghai ranking, that the university has the largest funding for science […], that the university is growing”.
Commenting on the corruption charges, the rector referred to the words of his lawyers, who told him that “they found nothing in you except legally obtained funds and a legally undeclared” Volkswagen car.
The students announced the rally after intimate photos and a video appeared on the anonymous Telegram channel Bugrovleaks, which allegedly depicts a person who looks like Bugrov himself.
The video, lasting For almost half an hour, footage from classroom 105 of the Red Building of the KNU, where the Center for the Study of Ivan Franko’s Creative Heritage is located, is also shown. Cameras installed there a few months ago recorded sexual acts by a man who looks like Bugrov. The video claims that the rector’s “victims” were female students and employees of the university, to whom he sent intimate photos and had intimate correspondence.
On the day the video appeared, representatives of the Student Parliament of the KNU inspected classroom 105 and found “intimate objects” there, which were also on the video. After that, the Student Parliament officially appealed to the rector with a request to explain the circumstances of the appearance of the video, the use of the university auditorium and the objects discovered in it.
