Ukrainian flag arbitrarily removed from balcony of an apartment building in Tashkent

In pictures spread on the Internet, a fire engine ladder can be seen being used to remove the flag.

The owner of the apartment, Rejep Latipov, told BBC Uzbek service that the incident happened on May 24 around 18:00. He stated that there was no one at home at that time, he was in Turkey with his spouse.

According to Latipov, about 3 hours before the flag was removed, there was a call from a person who introduced himself as an employee of the Mirzo Ulugbek district DIA.

“If ‘'m not mistaken, he introduced himself as Murod from the criminal investigation department. He asked that whether this house belonged to him. He also asked whether he or his wife were Ukrainian citizens. The answer was “no”. Then he asked why there was a Ukrainian flag on his balcony,” the owner of the apartment said.

He stated that in the conversation with the internal affairs officer, he said that the flag was inside the balcony of his apartment, that is, on the territory of his personal property.

“He insisted that the flag be removed after a few personal questions about myself and my wife’s birth year. I asked them to give a written explanation via Telegram about why the flag was removed, I said that they cannot remove it without reason. The DIA employee told that when he arrives in Tashkent, they will explain him, they have an order to remove”, Rejep Latipov, who gave details of the conversation, said.

The 51-year-old citizen adds that it is unclear to him who reported the flag to the DIA and why.

“Frankly, I don’t know who exactly removed the flag. All I know are messages, photos, videos sent by neighbors. They told the policeman that the flag has been standing in that place since last year, and there were no objections from them”.

The house owner said that he was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, but lives and works in Uzbekistan.

“The flag was a gift from my friends in Kiev. I kept the flag in my house to show them my hand. I have to repeat again, the flag was just standing on the balcony, it was not hung on the street.

He had been staying at the same place since March last year. So far, there have been no questions from anywhere else.

I was in Ukraine a lot before the pandemic and the war. Although I don’t speak Ukrainian, I didn’t have any problems communicating with people. I also have many friends in Russia. I have no enmity, hatred towards Russian citizens. I just hate war and the misery it brings.

My position is clear – I am against the war and I will use Ukraine in this war,” the BBC quoted Latipov as saying.

The situation is causing sharp criticism of activists on social networks. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has not yet responded to the situation.