Ukrainian Women Protest Flu Panic Wearing Only Surgical Masks

A Ukrainian women's group, FEMEN, took to the streets of Kyiv on November 9 to protest what they see as swine-flu hysteria.

The group is accusing politicians of using the outbreak to create fear ahead of the country's January 17 presidential election.

FEMEN's protests usually involve some state of undress: in order to draw attention to the plight of prostitutes, they dressed up as nurses to "cure foreigners' sex addiction"; to protest Ukraine's mud-slinging politicians they mud-wrestled in the street.

As one of the group's founders told "Spiegel," "if we were to run around dressed in baggy clothes no one would pay any attention to us."

-- Luke Allnutt