In Simferopol, gunmen attacked Hromadske.tv and Kyiv Post journalists

On March 8, in Simferopol near the republican military enlistment office gunmen in green uniform attacked investigative journalists Anna Babinets and Dmytro Gnap («Hromadske.tv»), Vlad Lavrov (Kyiv Post), Kostiantyn Reutskiy (streamer from Luhansk) and four their Russian colleagues.

Kostiantyn Reutskiy recorded the video of the attack.

The group heard about shots fired at a car with Kyiv plates in Simferopol near the military base and went to the site of the incident to look whether any shells were left there. They were told there was no shooting, so Anna and her Ukrainian colleagues stood there and talked and Kostiantyn Reutskiy and four Russian journalists joined them. At that moment the attack began. Seven armed gunmen in green uniform ran to them, forced the men facedown on the ground and took their equipment and memory sticks with the photo and video footage they gathered near the military enlistment office. They did not beat the journalists, just pushed them.

Babinets and other investigators believe that there is a quick response team of Russian special task force soldiers operating in Crimea, tasked with attacking journalists. The journalists managed to make a photo of a van the attackers arrived in and are asking to help find it; its plates are АК 1255. A similar van was used by attackers, who robbed foreign journalists in Simferopol on March 6; it was recorded by a surveillance camera.