In center of Kyiv, Hromadske.tv journalists beaten

Near Mariyinsky park, the journalists of Hromadske.tv (online Public TV) Dmytro Gnap and Yakiv Lubchych got beaten. Their camera was smashed and their thumb drive with the footage was taken  

Later on, live on Hromadske.tv Dmytro Gnap with blood on his face reported that they were attacked by about 20 persons as soon as they started to film people going to the alternative gathering place, where the ruling party’s anti-EuroMaidan was being held.

«We were assaulted twice. During the first assault we lost the camera, we turned to the police officers and asked to detain the attackers. But some police officers refused. We called the alarm response force and then two police officers went with us. We were filming with a phone. We came up to the leaders of those athletic thugs and they did not even bother to hide their faces», — was the quote from Dmytro Gnap published by Telekrytyka.

Gnap pointed out that those leaders started shouting, «Attack the cops and take away the camera», and unknown thugs started to beat both the journalists and the police officers. They were separated. According to Yakiv Lubchych, after that one of the thugs made a photo of the beaten police officers and threatened that they would lose their jobs for protecting the journalists.

The attackers also took the phones of Hromadske.tv journalists.

After the incident, Dmytro Gnap and Yakiv Lubchych decided not to wait for police or ambulance and went back to the Hromadske.tv studio. Later the ambulance arrived at the sudio to take Gnap to hospital to have his injured face stitched.

According to the Ukrainska Pravda, the ruling party, the Part of Regions, brought people from other cities to Yevropeiska Square for the rally in support of the President’s and the government’s actions. In the vicinity of Mariyinsky park a lot of young athletic thugs were seen.