In Lviv, a bus passenger insulted a war veteran. What is known?
7 April 20:55
Olena Lubenska, a Ukrainian veteran, said that a passenger in one of Lviv’s minibuses insulted her because of her combatant ID card. He threatened to call the SBU to check if it was real.
The veteran told about it in a video on her Instagram, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The incident occurred in a minibus she was taking from Mytna Square to Vynnyky near Lviv. According to Lubenska, she always pays in public transportation, but this time she didn’t have any cash on her.
When she showed her ID to the driver, he “waved his head” to let her get on. After that, one of the passengers asked her, “Who are you and where did you get it, where did you buy it?”
The veteran explained to him that she had indeed been in the war, and he replied that he would check her words by calling the SBU.
“The whole bus was full. People were sitting and silent. Then he called me an ‘UBD woman’. […] It’s just a horror, I’m so disgusted – from myself, to be honest, not from him. I’m so disgusted that I even got that license,” Lubenska says.
She also suggested that the man doubted her ID because she “doesn’t look like a veteran”:
“I’m not there anymore, I’m not at zero. What should I do, grow into that uniform and wear it only?”
The Road Department of the Lviv Regional State Administration responded to the veteran’s story, denying some Telegram channels that first wrote that the conflict was not between the woman and another passenger, but between her and the bus driver who refused to let her ride.
In fact, they said, the transport companies in Lviv Oblast are aware that the law provides for liability for unjustified refusal of preferential transportation.
They also called on residents of the region to contact their department if they know of drivers refusing to provide free transportation.
