Thugs assault journalists while police look on

In full view of the police Olha Snitsarchuk from TV Channel 5 and Vladyslav Sodel a Kommersant Ukraine photographer were beaten by unidentified louts. The police did not intervene despite being asked for protection several times by the journalists.

The incident took place near the opposition rally and the Central Police Department on Volodymyrska St.

The attack was serious with Olha Snitsarchuk left with a cut to her lip and bruised arms. The thugs also broke her telephone. Vladyslav Sodel who tried to defend her also received injuries. He says that this all happened in the view of the police who ignored their calls for help.

He told Telekritika that they had stopped to photograph how unidentified individuals of a bodybuilder appearance were beating up members of the VO Svoboda Party. “The assailants were circled by police and there were no members of the media present. When they saw me taking photos the louts in training gear hurled at me. Olha began videoing how they hit me, then the men threw her to the ground and inflicted blows”.  

He told Ukrainska Pravda that there were around 10 assailants.

The journalists called an ambulance and Olha was sent for a forensic medical examination. Vladislav Sodel says that an investigator drew up a protocol, though he doesn’t know what it said, and that around 15 minutes later he disappeared. 

Apparently the louts hitting the VO Svoboda members had just spoken to a Channel 5 reporter who was covering the incident.  The police did not use this material in order to detain the men who attacked the two journalists, Sodel says. 

From the report at Telekritika