In Odesa, unidentified men attacked filming crew of TV channel "Academia"

In Odesa, on June 15, unidentified men attacked the filming crew of the TV channel “Academia”, when it was filming the news story about animal cruelty in one of the city high-rises. This was reported by the IMI representative in Odeska oblast.

The TV channel’s filming crew arrived after a call from civil activists, who found hungry kittens locked in a cellar. The activists failed to extract the animals by themselves and asked the concierge for assistance but she refused and left the premises.

According to the TV channel’s journalist Iryna Kistruha, after some time three men arrived to the site and one of them introduced himself as the concierge’s son. After that, they began to threaten both the animal rights activists and the filming crew.

“One of them threatened us with physical violence, was pushing us, swearing and was extremely rude”, the correspondent said.

After that, this man attacked the camera operator Andriy Yakovenko, grasped him by the neck and tried twisting his arms. The animal rights activists and journalist turned to police and filed a complaint. The police is currently establishing the identity of the man who attacked them.