{"id":1374449,"date":"2026-03-26T21:30:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T19:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/scandal-at-the-university-of-physical-education-in-kyiv-rectors-elections-disrupted-students-protest\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T21:30:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T19:30:49","slug":"scandal-at-the-university-of-physical-education-in-kyiv-rectors-elections-disrupted-students-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/scandal-at-the-university-of-physical-education-in-kyiv-rectors-elections-disrupted-students-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Scandal at the University of Physical Education in Kyiv: Rector&#8217;s elections disrupted, students protest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">A loud scandal erupted at the National University of Physical Education and Sports of Ukraine due to the disruption of the rector&#8217;s elections &#8211; students and teachers protested outside the building of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">This <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/wsWpA-H8Ofk?si=96AhYnbQspz80xwF\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">is reported by<\/a> the &#8220;Pryamiy&#8221; TV channel.<\/span> <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wsWpA-H8Ofk?si=96AhYnbQspz80xwF\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">The ministry postponed the elections at the last moment, so the vote that took place in the morning lost its legal force. According to its results, Mykhailo Rigan won.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">At the same time, the department removed acting rector Oleksandr Pozhov and appointed a new head. The team calls this decision an unprecedented intervention and pressure on the university.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">The ministry explained its actions by the appeal of MP Kasai and the need to verify possible violations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">&#8220;There was an appeal, so we decided to postpone the elections in order to clarify everything and hold them properly,&#8221; the deputy minister noted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">Previously, accusations of the alleged misuse of about 150 million hryvnias each year appeared in the public sphere. Pozhov and Rigan deny these accusations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">&#8220;I am absolutely ready to cooperate with law enforcement agencies and provide all documents,&#8221; said Oleksandr Pozhov.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">Regan himself also spoke about the pressure before the election.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">&#8220;I was threatened with criminal charges if I did not withdraw my candidacy,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">The university community reacted sharply to the appointment of the new head. Some teachers and students call him an &#8220;exiled Cossack&#8221; and demand a return to a fair election procedure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">&#8220;When a leader is imposed on us in this form, it&#8217;s complete nonsense,&#8221; the teachers say.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">The protests were supported by famous athletes. Olympic champion Stella Zakharova stated that such actions contradict democratic principles, and boxer Oleksandr Usyk publicly congratulated Rigan on his victory and expressed his support.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"> <span class=\"s1\">Despite the protesters&#8217; demands, ministry representatives did not come out to the people. The participants in the action stated that they would continue the protest and demand transparent elections and preservation of the university&#8217;s autonomy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p> Also follow <strong>\u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/prm_ua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">X<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/+rtV4dxYu2_cyNjVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Telegram<\/a> , and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A loud scandal erupted at the National University of Physical Education and Sports of Ukraine due to the disruption of the rector&#8217;s elections &#8211; students and teachers protested outside the building of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. This is reported by the &#8220;Pryamiy&#8221; TV channel. The ministry postponed the elections at the last moment, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":1374441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76873],"class_list":["post-1374449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1374449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1374441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1374449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1374449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}