Yuriy Nikolov says the police no longer considers the attack on his apartment obstruction of his reporting

Photo by Yuriy Nikolov on Facebook

"Nashi Hroshi" investigator Yuriy Nikolov says that the chief investigator in the case of the attack on his apartment no longer considers it as obstruction to the journalist's reporting, but classifies it as hooliganism instead.

Nikolov spoke about this at the hromadske conference "Life in a Long War".

He said that the "the operation's initial budget" was $1,000, and the investigation had data that would enable them to trace who and paid the money and where. However, he believes that the investigators are simply not looking for the masterminds.

"It would be very embarrassing for the ruling party and the President's Office if the investigators got there and saw everything," Nikolov said.

He added that he considers pressure on journalists to be a systematic phenomenon in Ukraine.

The journalist also recalled that the three men who tried to break into his apartment were detained, interrogated and released on the same day. According to him, no suspicion notices were handed to them.

Previously

On January 15, investigative journalist Yuriy Nikolov reported an attempt at intimidation: unknown men tried to break into his apartment on January 14, scaring his mother and neighbors, and left paper notes saying "draft dodger" and "traitor" on his door. After the incident, the Telegram channel "Kartochny Ofis" posted about it, claiming that it was military servicemen trying to deliver a draft notice to the journalist. A provocative post about Yuri Nikolov was shared by the Telegram channels "Vertykal" and "Joker" at about the same time. On January 15, the Telegram channel "Joker" posted the video of Nikolov's comment on President Volodymyr Zelensky and implied that the attack on the journalist's apartment was retaliation for his remark about the head of state.

On January 19, the police started a case over pressuring the investigative journalist Yury Nikolov to prevent him from performing his professional duties and persecuting the latter due to his reporting (Part 2 of Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). 

On January 21 the police said they identified five people who tried to break into the apartment of investigative journalist Yury Nikolov.

On January 26, 2024 Yuriy Nikolov reported that that the police released the five men who had tried to break into his apartment.

On January 28, Zhytomyr.city posted an address by two men on its YouTube channel. The men introduced themselves as Dmytro and Denys and claimed that an SBU employee named Oleksiy ordered them to attack journalist Yuriy Nikolov's apartment. According to Zhytomyr.city, the men decided that they had been used "for some weird game" and mustered the courage for an open video interview.

The police believe that finding the mastermind of the attack on the apartment of journalist Yury Nikolov is possible. They hope that the organizer, who has already been identified, will tell them about it.