Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals have complained about an increase of attacks in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in Eastern Ukraine. On 8 June 2014, ten armed people attacked the gay club Babylon in the city of Donetsk. They fired blank cartridges into the air for intimidation and declared that there should not be gay clubs in the city, after which they robbed the visitors. In 2015, the Deputy Minister for Political Affairs of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic stated: "A culture of homosexuality is spreading… This is why we must kill anyone who is involved in this." Many volunteers that took in refugees from territories controlled by the Donetsk People's Republic refused to host LGBT people.