A woman attacked an Espreso TV film crew near Darnytsia metro station in Kyiv city, verbally threatening them and grabbing at their hands and camera. The incident occurred shortly after the crew finished filming a news story about the transport situation around the station, correspondent Natalia Starepravo reported in a Facebook post. She elaborated in comments to Institute of Mass Information (IMI) journalist Valentyna Troyan.
Starepravo said that filming had already been completed and the journalists had been waiting for their driver. The camera was not running at the time.
A woman approached the reporters, accompanied by another person. She began shouting at them in Russian, demanding that they stop filming and explain why they were filming passers-by, in particular elderly people, and used obscene language.
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“She didn’t want to listen, hurling abusive words at us. She walked up to us and started grabbing at the camera, at the cameraman, at the tripod, and started grabbing my hands,” Natalia Starepravo said.
In posted footage from the scene, the woman is insulting and threatening the journalist.
“What ‘job’? You know where you’re going to be doing your ‘job’, my dear? Shut your mouth! Do you think I’m going to like you? I’ll smash your glasses, you c***, if you even look at me, damn it,” the woman shouted, addressing the journalist.
The unknown woman also threatened to damage their equipment: “Why the f*** are you filming? Let me take a rock and f***ing smash all of this.”
The journalists tried to explain that they had the right to work in a public space and encouraged the woman to call the police. Passers-by began to stand up for the crew, but the woman reacted aggressively to them as well.
Since the woman did not stop her threats and continued to pursue the cameraman carrying the equipment, the journalists called the police themselves.
Starepravo said that the officers who had responded to the call identified the woman and said they have encountered her before. She had a document confirming she has mental disabilities.
The correspondent said that the woman had continued to behave aggressively even in the presence of the police, threatening to “punch the faces” of both the journalists and the officers.
The film crew did not file an official report with the police. After speaking with the police, the journalists left the scene.
None of the media workers suffered serious injuries, and the equipment was not damaged.
In October 2026, the Rivne-based outlet Chetverta Vlada reported that their chief editor Volodymyr Torbich had received death threats following the release of a news piece on criminal law proceedings involving the children of Liana Dynovska, director of the Rivne Social Services Centre.
