Near the Parliament building, police officer sprayed gas to the face of Radio Liberty journalist

Police officer used gas spray against Radio Liberty correspondent Serhiy Nuzhnenko on March 3 in Kyiv, near the building of Verkhovna Rada, Radio Liberty reports. According to the journalist, he was taking footage and photographed the events that were taking place in the morning near the building of the Parliament. He has journalist ID which he was holding unfolded in front of himself. The camera was directed in the direction of tents of activists. At one point, a police officer approached the correspondent from behind and sprayed the gas spray into his face. As chief editor of Kyiv office of Radio Liberty, Iryna Kuznetsova, reported to  IMI, Serhiy Nuzhnenko called police and ambulance to the site after this incident. As the media outlet reported, in the morning on March 3, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reported that police conducts investigations in the tent encampment near the building of the Parliament of Ukraine. MP Semen Semenchenko called the actions of the police “a storming”, and his colleague Yehor Sobolev said that the tent camp was “smashed by police special forces”. According to the head of Kyiv police, Andriy Kryshchnko, the police detained 50 people. The chief of police also said that the investigation was on the fact of attempted seizure of the International Center of culture and arts (October Palace) in Kyiv in December of 2017 and clashes near the parliament on February 27. The tent encampment was set up near the PArliament in the middle of October of 2017. Activists demanded, among other things, cancellation of immunity of MPs, creation of Anti-Corruption court, and approval of new law on Parliamentary elections.