The assailants attacked the peaceful protesters and burned a LGBT flag (Photo: Радіо Свобода)

A court in Ukraine has banned what had been set to be the country’s first gay pride rally, for fear that it will spark violence.

The district court of Kiev on Thursday made the ruling to ban the gay pride demonstration. The court upheld a lawsuit by city authorities, who had argued that the rally could cause disturbance to annual Kiev Day celebrations, and could set off violence in the city.

Organisers last year cancelled the event at the last minute, as anti-gay protesters gathered at the planned location for the rally, and had intended to attack participants. Subsequently, members of radical groups attacked two leading gay activists.

This news comes shortly after Amnesty International published a report urging the Ukrainian Government to introduce legislation to tackle discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, following a number of attacks.

Last week, a bill to protect gay Ukrainian workers from discrimination based on their sexual orientation was dropped by the country’s parliament, as hundreds of anti-gay protesters gathered to demonstrate against it.

The Ukrainian foreign minister, Leonid Kozhara, promised in February that the country would soon ban all anti-gay discrimination in an interview with a Polish newspaper.

Ukraine is currently governed by the Party of Regions political party who is strongly pro-Russia. Russia is currently passing laws which restrict the freedoms of LGBT citizens, something that the Ukrainian Parliament also examined.

In a 2007 poll 5.7% of Ukrainians said that “gay lifestyles” were acceptable and only 4.7% of Ukrainians stated that they thought same-sex marriage in the country was a priority.