Poltava police warned wrong person in case of obstruction to "Kolo" journalist

Oktyabrskyi department of the National Police in Poltavska oblast does not see a criminal offence in the situation, where the head of Public Relations, Organization and General issues of Poltava City executive committee Ihor Veryha did not give opportunity to the journalist of the online media outlet “Kolo” to ask the city mayor Oleksander Mamay a question about installation of a monument to Ivan Mazepa. The regional IMI representative for cooperation with local National Police Administration reports about this. The journalist filed a complaint to the police about this, and the police reported that it conducted an investigation and, as they claimed, officially warned the offender. Yet, according to the police’ official response, they did not warn Veryha, instead they warned someone named Verevskyi. Also, the response claims that the incident did not incorporate anything that could make it a criminal offense.

The journalist in question, Andriy Ivanov, does not believe that any significant investigation was conducted - police did not even contact him and did not request the video materials of the incident in his possession.