Two Ukrainian women who filmed themselves dancing and twerking on the graves of slain soldiers in a Kyiv cemetery on the nation’s Independence Day face five years in prison after being charged with desecrating a grave.
The unidentified sisters were visiting the grave of their father, who they said was killed defending Ukraine from Russia’s invasion near Izium, when they broke into suggestive dance moves last Thursday, a viral clip showed.
The women — clad in crop tops, booty shorts, and Crocs — were seen setting up a camera before backing up to dance in between the flower-adorned graves of two soldiers at Forest Cemetery, as pictures of the fallen fighters and the Ukraine flag were visible in the shot.
Kyiv police said in a Telegram post on Friday that the women had been detained less than an hour after officers were made aware of the ill-advised viral routine.
The sisters were booked wearing the same outfits that they had worn in the controversial cemetery clip, photos show.
“Investigators of the Desnyan police department, in agreement with the district prosecutor’s office, started criminal proceedings under Part 2 of Article 297 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — insult to the grave,” the post read in Ukrainian.
“The issue of notifying them of suspicion is being resolved. Suspects face restriction of liberty for a period of three to five years or deprivation of liberty for the same period.”
The sisters later took to Instagram to issue a mea culpa, explaining in a written statement that they had initially thought that their late father would have gotten a kick out of their provocative antics.
Newsflash
“My sister and I want to apologize to everyone, apologize for our thoughtless video. It was absolutely not our aim to denigrate anyone, least of all the memory of our fallen heroes,” the women alternately said in a solemn joint video statement posted to Instagram Monday by the account @vl_lindemann, which had reportedly originally posted the dancing clip.
“We understand that our actions had no place where our father is buried with other fallen defenders of Ukraine. We are sincerely sorry and asking to forgive our stupidity.
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“We completely understand how shameful our act appears, and we are now ashamed. We are asking forgiveness from everyone who might have been offended. Please forgive us for this horrible mistake.”
On Wednesday, all of the channel’s content had been scrubbed except for the apology.
