Zaporizhzhia journalist attacked by an "unjust power cuts" protester

Wearing blue is the woman who attacked the 061.ua journalist Kateryna Klochko in Zaporizhzhia, screenshot from Kateryna Klochko's video by the IMI

061.ua photojournalist Kateryna Klochko was attacked by a participant of the rally against "unjust power cuts" in Zaporizhzhia on July 19. The incident happened as the journalist was filming the protest, Kateryna Klochko reported to the Institute of Mass Information representative in Zaporizhzhia oblast.

According to Kateryna, the attacker did not like the fact that she was not filming the car blocked by the protesters and demanded that she film the people who did it. When the journalist refused to do so, the woman grabbed the journalist by the arm, pushed her and forcibly turned her towards the car.

The journalist said that she was filming the protesters blocking the traffic on Sobornyi Avenue.

"At that moment, a car tried to drive by and was blocked by the protesters. Some woman started shouting to me: 'Why are you filming this, film those people!', pointing to the protesters blocking the car. Then she came up to me, grabbed me by the arm I was holding the camera with, pushed and turned me towards the car. I told her that I was a journalist and that I knew what to film, that she had no right to touch me or tell me what to film," said Kateryna Klochko.

According to her, when asked on what grounds she had laid hands on the journalist, the woman answered: "Next time I can use my feet."

In the video, which Kateryna Klochko took after the incident and shared with the IMI representative, the woman is seen behaving aggressively, shouting at the journalist and accusing her of "provoking the situation".

"I immediately turned to the policemen who were supervising the rally. In the end, I filed a statement with the police about obstruction of my reporting and now I am waiting for it to be registered," the 061.ua journalist said.

As the IMI representative points out, the July 19 rally in Zaporizhzhia was informally called the "Rally Against Unfair Power Cuts." The organizers of the event are unknown. The participants stressed that they were "self-organized".

As the journalists covering the event told the IMI representative, during the rally several people in the crowd shouted that the blackouts were not caused by a full-scale war and the Russian troops destroying Ukraine's energy infrastructure, but by the inaction and corruption of the authorities, etc. To date, similar rallies without officially declared organizers have already taken place in Zaporizhzhia and several cities in Poltava oblast. Calls for a similar rally in Cherkasy oblast have also been reported.