Journalists beaten to blood at rally in Kyiv

Journalist of TV 5 Kanal Olga Snitsarchuk and her husband, photographer of Kommersant newspaper, Vladislav Sodel, were beaten when they were taking photos of a rally in Kyiv on May 18. The incident occurred near the head office of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine in Volodymyrska street.

The journalists were beaten up to blood. In particular, Olga Snitsarchuk was thrown on the ground, she had her lip dissected, attackers beat her with their hands and legs. They also smashed her phone, with which she was filming the rally. Vladislav Sodel, who tried to defend her, also received injuries. According to the photographer, the incident happened in presence of the police, who absolutely ignored requests to help.

According to Sodel, he and Olga Snitsarchuk stopped to take photos of unknown athletic guys who attacked participants of the rally. "The aggressors were surrounded by police. There were no other journalists at the scene. Having seeing that I started to take photos, young men in tracksuits rushed at me. And Olga began to take video how they were beating me. And the men knocked her to the ground and began to beat"- said the photographer

"We were attacked by about a dozen people," - he said to Ukrayinska Pravda.

 After that journalists called "fast" and doctors - investigative team. "Olga walked on passing forensic. The investigator was protocol - which is the wording, I do not know. And for 15 minutes he disappeared from the scene, "- said Vlad Sodel.

 The police opened criminal proceedings on part 1 article 125 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (light bodily injures). In the evening of May 18, journalists organized a small protest action at the building of the Interior Ministry, after which the police finally opened proceedings on article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (hampering legal professional journalist activities).

Another journalist protest action was carried out in the morning of May 20, in front of the Interior Ministry’s building. Some 150 journalists participated in it.

Journalists have already established the identity of one of the aggressors – they found him in social networks Vkontakte – it is Vadym Titushko, aka Vadik Rumyn, who is a resident of Bila Tserkva and a member of Budo local sports club, which is a part of the Federation of Pankraton, headed by Party of Regions deputy Viktor Korzh.

Olga has written at her Facebook page that she understood during the interrogation at police that it will be hard to prove the guilt of people who beat the journalists, despite all the photos and videos. The investigator wanted a very concrete description - who of aggressors delivered what blow, and how - and Olga says it is just impossible to establish, because there were several people, whom she can recognize.