The police should have responded properly to the attack on an Espreso TV filming crew near Darnytsia metro station in Kyiv on 19 October 2026, even though the journalists did not file an official report and the woman who threatened them had a document confirming she was mentally ill, Institute of Mass Information lawyer Petro Stoinov said, commenting on the actions of the officers who declined to detain the woman, citing her mental disability.
The lawyer believes that a medical certificate did not relieve the police of their duty to respond to an offence. Patrol officers are not authorised to determine whether a person is of sound mind or not, or to close cases under Article 173 of the Code of Administrative Offences (minor hooliganism), since in law this question is settled exclusively by a court on the basis of an appropriate expert examination, Stoinov pointed out.
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The lawyer also stressed that the absence of a report from the journalists does not cancel the patrol officers’ duty to prevent offenses, especially when violent threats and promises to smash the reporters’ equipment were made in their presence and directed at the crew.
“By citing the attacker’s mental illness as the reason for being passive, the police effectively failed to apply Article 41 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On the National Police’, which expressly provides for a response to persons with pronounced signs of mental disorder who pose a real danger,” the lawyer remarked.
He said that this provision required officers to draw up a report, confiscate any dangerous items if necessary, and hand the person over to a specialised ambulance team in accordance with the Law “On Psychiatric Care”. If the person was not in an acute state at the time the officers arrived, they are presumed to be of sound mind here and now, and the police were obligated to stop the offence in progress by drawing up an administrative report.
The lawyer remarked that the argument that the offender was “long familiar to the police” breached medical confidentiality and betrayed a selective approach in responding.
“When an unwell and aggressive person regularly terrorises a neighbourhood, and the patrol officers drive off every time without drawing up any documents or calling medics, the problem simply festers. Without this evidentiary trail, compulsory treatment can not be initiated through court, so this kind of passivity leaves both journalists and residents on their own, with the risk that next time a threat will end in real tragedy,” Petro Stoinov remarked.
As reported earlier, a woman attacked an Espreso TV film crew near Darnytsia metro station in Kyiv city on 19 October, 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.
