Visitors to 2018 UEFA Champions League Final in Ukraine likely to face elevated injury and robbery risks

Local authorities will organise several main venues in the city centre to be used during the 24-27 May programme of events that coincide with the Champions League Final. The central Khreshchatyk street will be pedestrianised for public entertainment purposes, and two separate fan zones will be established: one in the Shevchenko Park and the other in front of the "Ukraina" national palace of arts, more than 2km south and southwest of Khreshchatyk street.

Regular use of crude IEDs presents threat of collateral injury and disruption to visitors

There have been no incidents of large entertainment or sporting events being targeted in the city, despite the proliferation of politically motivated IED attacks since 2014. However, government buildings and assets in Kiev associated with the security services and Russian commercial and diplomatic assets have been targeted by small capability crude improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

In the 12 months to May 2018, IHS Markit has logged at least eight separate IED attacks against a variety of targets, including a local TV station, local government buildings, against an LGBT parade, and in the courtyard of the US Embassy. These have resulted in several fatalities, including in September 2017 a Chechen exile from Russia was killed by an IED explosion at Besarabska Square in central Kiev, and another passenger of his vehicle was injured by shrapnel from the explosion. Many of those attacks were defined as terrorism by local authorities, targeting specific individuals, mostly connected with the conflict in the Donbass region, and occurred at geographically disparate locations in the urban area. Furthermore, IED threats later found to have been hoaxes have on several occasions caused major disruption to city transport, as for example at Kiev’s Zhulany airport in November 2017 and at six metro stations in central Kiev in February 2018.

Local football hooligan groups will probably seek to incite violence with visiting fans

FC Dynamo supporters holding sticks prepare to clash with Besikta supporters during the UEFA Champions League football match at the Olympiyski Stadium in Kiev on 6 December 2016.

Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images #628083306

Fans of local club Dynamo Kyiv have frequently been involved in orchestrated and premeditated football-related violence against foreigners in recent years. Although there is no specific history of violence between Liverpool or Real Madrid and Dynamo Kyiv fans, English fans are an aspirational target for hooligan fan groups because of their reputation as the ‘inventors’ of football hooliganism. In October 2015, a group of Chelsea fans were attacked and beaten by supposed Dynamo Kyiv hooligans near Independence Square in Kiev city centre. On the same date, four football fans of African descent were subjected to sustained racist abuse and physical assault during a Dynamo Kyiv-Chelsea Champions League fixture in Kiev. In December 2016, Kyiv fans fought in city centre bars and streets with Turkish fans of Besiktas in Kiev on the date of a Champions League fixture between the two clubs.

Although local authorities will maintain tight control of the stadium and its immediate environs, with additional police forces deployed, foreigners visiting city centre locations including those identified above are at heightened risk of attack by local football hooligans.

Firearms are not commonly used in football violence by Kyiv fans. However, knives have been used, for example in fights between locals and England fans in Kiev city centre in 2013, resulting in three England fans receiving non-fatal stab wounds.

Robbery the most likely crime against foreigners

Although crime data is not consistent, violent crime against foreign nationals is anecdotally reported to be rare by local sources, and mostly affects nationals of post-Soviet countries living in Ukraine. The primary crime risk is robbery. Robberies usually increase in Ukraine during international events, targeting particularly foreign nationals. During the 2012 UEFA Euro Championships in Ukraine there were 237 crimes against foreign nationals across Ukraine (as against 92 in 2013 and 63 in 2014). During the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev police reported 12 crimes against foreign nationals on the day of the event (see Ukraine: 9 March 2017: Visitors to Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev face risk of individual attacks or collateral injury from brawls) .

Separatist symbols a potential trigger for politically motivated violence

Ukraine has issued a ban on residents of Crimea, annexed by Russia in March 2014, entering the mainland prior to the match, but has not issued restrictions on residents of the separatist-controlled areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In Kiev, the display of potentially provocative flags and symbols of the Donbass separatist entities is unlikely at the stadium during the Champions League Final due to targeted searches at stadium entrances. However, as there is no legal ban on the usage of DPR and LPR symbols and flags in Ukraine, there is small likelihood that these will be displayed outside sporting venues by some visitors. That would likely prompt brawls with police officers and residents, particularly with former servicemen and members of the radical nationalist organisations. Risks of injury and of vandalism damage to property are moderate, despite the presence in Ukraine of very large quantities of weaponry and ordnance. Police regularly seize various types of weapons, from individual rounds and hand grenades up to grenade launchers, but that is almost exclusively found outside Kiev.

Outlook and implications

Kiev city authorities will install concrete blocks around the main sport venues for the event, and are partly seeking to minimise potential targets as they have decided not to screen live broadcasts of the match at public venues.

Kiev city police have already introduced reinforcements for April-May 2018, with more than 200 additional police officers patrolling the city centre, particularly the government quarter southeast of Khreshchatyk. Overall, more than 5,000 police officers will patrol Kiev during the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final. Similarly sized deployment to the past events, including during the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017 and during the LGBT marches, were sufficient to provide security and safety for events’ participants and foreign visitors. Thus, while the risks from IED explosions, brawls involving spectators and robberies will be elevated, heavy police presence will be likely to mitigate many of such violent incidents.

Map of locations for Champions League final in Kiev

IHS Markit