Espreso journalist attacked in Kremenchuk

Espreso TV journalist Maria Ivanovska was attacked by unknown persons while reporting in Kremenchuk (Poltava oblast) on December 9. The channel aired a story about this, and the journalist reported it on Facebook and shared the details with Nadia Kucher, the Poltava representative of the Institute of Mass Information.

According to the story, Maria Ivanovska was in Kremenchuk to investigate the supply of Russian oil products to Ukraine. In the released video, an unknown man approaches the journalist, starts threatening to break her phone and uses his car to block the journalist's exit from the place where she was collecting material for the investigation. He forbade the journalist to film, saying that it was prohibited because it was a "restricted access facility." The journalist, in turn, replied that she was not at a restricted access facility, but in a thicket.

After a while, several more men in civilian clothes arrived at the scene, behaving aggressively. At a later point in the video, a man claims to be from a security service. The journalist asks if he meant the Security Service of Ukraine. The man does not answer, but threatens that if she “does not delete the information from the phone, she will be taken to a different place.”

The journalist called the police to the scene and wrote a statement on obstruction of reporting.

Maria Ivanovska told the IMI representative that the phone remained intact, but she could not leave until the police helped her.

“The phone is intact, but a large number of aggressive men later joined the man who forbade us to film and blocked our exit. We were only able to leave the place by calling the police,” the journalist said.

Kremenchuk police spokesperson Anna Vasenko said in a comment to the IMI that there are recommended signs prohibiting photography and video recording on the highway that the TV channel’s filming crew was driving along. Anna Vasenko confirmed that the Espreso journalist had filed a statement. "It is being looked into, all the details will be reported later," she said.

Maria Ivanovska reported that today, December 10, she, the driver, and the cameraman were questioned by the police. The journalist assures that she was not at a restricted facility and saw no signs suggesting she was. She explained that two companies were registered in the place where she was filming, which she says are both involved in criminal law cases regarding the supply of Russian oil products, namely methanol, disguised as a solvent, to Ukraine.