After the girl’s death, hundreds of residents demanded that the Roma be expelled, and on Sunday they gained the backing of the district council. Even Mikheil Saakashvili, the governor of the region of Odessa, which includes Loshchynivka, and a former president of Georgia, offered tacit support in a video message posted on Facebook, denouncing the village’s “antisocial elements.”

The Roma apparently left voluntarily, and by Sunday night about 40 of the 50 Roma in the town had left in a rush, leaving many essentials behind. Any who returned to collect their belongings were met with threats of lynching, the local news media reported.

With the authorities under pressure to prosecute the accused, a local police leader, Vadym Mohyla, said it was unfortunately “impossible to immediately punish the guilty.”