Student hits Ukrainian education minister with bouquet

A female student slapped Ukraine's Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk in the face with a bunch of flowers on Thursday in response to a government ban on student protests. The girl, named in media reports as 17-year-old Darya Stepanenko, is a student at the country's elite Kyiv-Myhailovska academy. She approached Tabachnyk at a forum for senior European education officials taking place in Kiev. Instead of handing him the bouquet, which is common practice in Ukraine after top officials make speeches to large audiences, she tried to stuff the flowers in his face. Tabachnyk blocked Stepanenko by grabbing her arm, after which she was escorted from the lecture hall by police. He later downplayed the incident. Tabachnyk, who has often been accused of having a pro-Russian stance, is unpopular among Ukrainian students over his support of widespread use of the Russian language, and the revision of history textbook to describe Ukrainian freedom fighters against the Soviet regime as bandits, as well as rising university fees. Local students have repeatedly called for his resignation.