Operator of Channel 5 was beaten in Sevastopol

In Sevastopol, near the Ukrainian Navy HQ the operator of Channel 5 was beaten. His name is withheld for now due to concerns of his safety.

As the eyewitness to the incident, the news photographer Emine Ziatdinova, reported, in the morning a group of journalists together with the Ukrainian Navy's press secretary tried to enter the Navy HQ after it became known that the Ukrainian military bases were unblocked. But at the entrance there was a large group of the so-called Crimean community defense, who would not let them through. At first, the group of local inhabitants of about 50 persons was just insisting they are "the Russian people" and don't want to be with "the illegal authorities in Kyiv". But when two camera operators came closer they started shouting that Channel 5 was misrepresenting the events in Crimea and encouraging each other to beat Channel 5 filming crew. They hit the operator, and he fell down together with his camera. The other operator was from the “Novy” channel, he was pushed, too. When the operators started running, the protesters tried to pursue them. Although there were some people who stopped the brawl.