A Ukrainian refugee who has been helping others escape the war-torn country has faced an alleged homophobic attack in Scotland. Nick Jeorg, aged 22, is a volunteer and journalist with Help Ukraine Scotland (HUS) who arrived in the UK on April 26.
Nick has already helped evacuate two other LGBT+ individuals from Ukraine as the community comes under intense threat during the Russian invasion, but he says he has now faced discrimination while living in Edinburgh, Edinburgh Live reports.
On his way to Sainsbury's on Nicolson Street at around 9.30pm on Thursday, June 30, he alleges he was subjected to an unprovoked and terrifying homophobic attack from a man who was leaving the shop.
Nick explained: “I was walking to Sainsbury's for food at about 21:30pm. Where a man came out with a bottle of beer, took me by the hand and asked ‘Are you gay?’
“I told him ‘I’m #Ukrainian, what do you need?’ and after that he started yelling at me ‘f***ing Ukrainian gay, I hate you - I’m from #Poland.’ I told him, ‘don’t touch me’ and I tried to get away from him.
“But he started chasing me, hitting my hands, trying to grab me. I started yelling ‘help me, homophobe’ and people started helping me and protecting me from him. Security ran out of the store and started filming this criminal. There was a friend of mine on the street who started protecting me and I had to run to the store.
“After that I left but this man was still there, and he started trying to attack me again and yell homophobic stuff. I got really sick and scared, and he kept doing it, and I started yelling back ‘how can you be homophobic? You’re worse than the Russians!’”
“He kept threatening me but people protected me and surrounded him and he turned around and left the scene. After the shop employees called the police, I went to the police station where I wrote about the homophobic assault.
“A lot of people in the street protected me, they surrounded him and prevented him from attacking. In the end, he had to leave. The supermarket employees helped me by calling the police and offered me protection until the attacker left.”
Nick said that the man also displayed a national dislike for him as a Ukrainian, leaving him feel frightened and confused.
He continued: “I wasn’t ready for it. I was scared of him being so aggressive towards me. It all reminded me of life in the occupied territory of Ukraine, when Russian soldiers killed people.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 10.15pm on Thursday, 30 June, 2022, police received a report of an assault in the Nicolson Street area of Edinburgh.
“Enquiries are at an early stage.”
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