Two attacks on Country journalists in a week. Why are the limitless are still not punished

A week has passed since Vlada Bovtruk, a journalist of the “Country”, was beaten up on the Maidan in Kiev.
The very next day, we installed the attacker – they turned out to be the nationalist and SBU provocateur Alexei Tsymbalyuk.
Since then, the police opened two criminal cases. One – on the fact of the attack, the second – on the threats that Tsymbalyuk expressed against Vlad on Facebook.
Vlad has already removed the beatings – the doctors confirmed the beating.
However, the investigation has not yet raised suspicions to the nationalist. And the government does not comment on the beating of a journalist in the center of the capital – that in any European country would be a cause for scandal.
The “Country” recalls the details of the incident and what procedural gestures are going through it now.
What happened
On July 2, Vladislav Bovtruk came to a rally organized by supporters of Petro Poroshenko and nationalists on the Maidan against the registration of candidates for deputies Anatoly Shariy and Andriy Klyuev by the CEC on an editorial assignment to make a report.
At one point, he noticed a scuffle. As it turned out, one of Sharii’s supporters came to the rally with a red ball. They immediately attacked him and began to drive him away.
“I came closer to photograph this incident and immediately received a blow in the face from one of the rally participants – men about 50 years old. The blow was so strong that I fell. After that, I was already kicked and kicked. I got up and clearly said that I was a journalist after which they poured water on me and started shouting “Are you not enough? Add? “. At this point, the police came and led me out of the crowd,” – said Vlad.
Later, a video appeared on the network, filmed by an eyewitness immediately after the beating. At the very beginning of the video near Vlad, a man in a black T-shirt and a gray cap is seen. Our journalist identified him as the attacker.
On the video it is noticeable, as after the beating, Vlad tells the assembled activists and the police that he represents the “Country”. In response, he is again attacked and trying to hit, but the police take the journalist out of the crowd.
The attacker – “killer Babchenko”
The very next day, the identity of the man who had beaten the journalist became known. It turned out to be the so-called “killer of Arkady Babchenko”, known for his neo-Nazi views, the former priest of the Kiev Patriarchate Alexei Tsymbalyuk.
He became widely known after participating in the dramatization of the murder of journalist Arkady Babchenko. He acted there as an agent of the SBU. He was assigned the role of a provocateur, whose task was to make the organizer of the crime believe that Babchenko was dead.
Tsymbalyuk – in the past, the priest of the Kiev Patriarchate. When the war began, he went to the Right Sector and reasoned that it was not a sin to kill the separatists, but an act of mercy.
After the beginning of the conflict in the Donbas, Tsymbalyuk enrolled in the Right Sector, and later served in the Hospitaller battalion.
Returning to Odessa, he began to more actively lead his Facebook. Judging by the photo, professing neo-Nazi views.
Recently, Tsymbalyuk “works” in Kiev, appearing on many street actions that were previously sent from the SBU.

At a rally on July 2, Tsymbalyuk stood in the ranks of his associates, among whom were C14 and the “Brotherhood” of Korczynski. Also on the Maidan was a nationalist from Odessa, Sergei Sternenko, a year ago who had stabbed a man.
Police opened the case
On June 3, it became known that the police opened a criminal case on the fact of an attack on a journalist during the performance of his official duties.
Information about the commission of a crime against a journalist has been entered into the ERDR (unified register of pre-trial investigations) and criminal proceedings have been registered on the grounds of a crime under Part 2 of Art. 345-1 of the Criminal Code (deliberately inflicting a beating or light bodily harm on a journalist, which is connected with the exercise of his professional activity).
This article provides for the restriction or imprisonment of up to five years.
The second criminal case, opened on July 7, concerns death threats.
After the incident on the Maidan in social networks, Tsimbalyuk wrote that Bovtruk “does not give rest to the Elderberry laurels.” Recall, the famous opposition journalist and writer Oles Buzina was killed in April 2015 in the yard of his house in Kiev. In the case of his murder, nationalists Medvedko and Polishchuk are being accused.
At the same time, cases are still open on the application and there are no suspects in them. This suggests that Tsymbalyuk is trying to get out of the blow.
According to sources, “Countries” in the Interior Ministry, the police are now interviewing witnesses to the attack and trying to establish the whereabouts of Tsymbalyuk.
“The difficulty is that Tsymbalyuk is now under the guardianship of the SBU in the Babchenko case under the witness protection program. However, this does not relieve him from responsibility for the crimes committed. Therefore, his development continues,” the police said.
New attack on the journalist “Countries”
Of the authorities, no one has yet responded to the beating of our journalist.
Is that the head of the Office of the President Andrew Bogdan casually mentioned that at a rally Poroshenko supporters attacked a journalist.
Nobody answered our inquiries in the Office of the President.
Also, “Country” sent a request to the Committee on Freedom of Speech. We are pleased to consider our question at the next meeting (it will be held on Wednesday 10 July). However, so far no answer has come.
Such a sluggish reaction to the crime committed naturally gives rise to a sense of impunity among the bespredelschik.
Just yesterday, they tried to beat another journalist of the “Country”, Kirill Malyshev.
The journalist was attacked on July 8 during a rally under the walls of Newsone. Cyril was there for editorial purposes. After that, the police asked him (and not the radicals) to leave the rally “to avoid provocations.”
“A few minutes after the start of the rally, directly from the entrance to the business center where NewsOne TV channel was located, it moved to a perpendicular street, where the windows of the TV channel’s office were allegedly opening. I followed it. I saw this moment ten meters away from myself the leader of the ultra-right organization C14, Yevgeny Karas, and a photographer of one of the Kiev publications. The photographer was pointing at me, “says Kirill Malyshev.

Further, according to him, Karas shouted in the crowd: “Here is a separatist. Journalist” Countries. ”
“Immediately afterwards, the protesters tried to attack me. But other activists defended me. Focus’s journalist also stumbled. This allowed me to gain time, and the dialogue police who had approached brought me out of the crowd,” Malyshev said.
After that, the cops asked Kirill to leave the rally “to avoid provocations.”
Physically Malyshev was not injured. But the fact remains that in less than a week the radicals attacked our two journalists, who were in office. This suggests that the street “fighters” of the Poroshenko era continue to feel at ease in Ukraine and Vladimir Zelensky.
This moment was marked by everyone who commented on the next wave of attacks on journalists.
Beating Reaction
The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine outraged by the attack on Vladislav Bovtruk. The head of the NSWU, Sergey Tomilenko, told Country, that the incident occurred is outrageous. “Any meetings and political actions should be open to journalists of all media and media workers should not be afraid to go to mass events and do their work. This aggression becomes possible because a stereotype has developed in Ukrainian society – the journalist is a defenseless victim, an attack on it remains unpunished. We hope that the police will have enough professionalism to carry out an investigation and the excerpts not to turn to politics, ”said Tomilenko.
The chief editor of the “Country”, Igrri Guzhva, wrote on Facebook: “The attack on Vladislav Bovtruk (Vladislav Bovtruk) is an exam for the new government. The identity of the attacker is known (it was established by“ Country ”). Criminal proceedings are open. .
If the case is again put on the brakes, it will mean one thing – the Nazis on the wages of Poroshenko (all these Karas-Sternenko-Tsymbalyuk) still feel unpunished and in the interests of Poroshenko destabilize the situation in the country.
And this ex-president will continue to use. For example, about the criminal cases that are now being brought against him. Nazi gopot will nightmare the judges, investigators, to block the process. With this you need to finish. The earlier the better. That is why the case of the attack on Vlad is significant and extremely important. ”
“Pyotr Alekseevich, you will play in politics,” Svetlana Kryukova, deputy editor-in-chief of “The Country”, responded to the beating incident on the social network.
Olesya Medvedeva, a special correspondent for Strana, said that the beating of Vladislav Bovtruk on Poroshenko’s Maidan indicated that there had been no change in the freedom of speech in Ukraine with the change of president.
“In our time, the lack of freedom of the word in Ukraine. Poroshenko’s regime seems to have ended: when there was intense pressure on the media and certain journalists. But nothing seems to have changed, as we see, on the street, and at the legislative level too …” , – she said on the TV channel NewsOne.
Olesya Medvedeva said that Vladislav Bovtruk had already written a statement to the police, and Strana actually conducted an investigation for law enforcement officers and identified the person who had beaten the journalist.
“This is Alexey Tsymbalyuk – the so-called“ killer ”of Arkady Babchenko, whom the SBU used as a false killer, so that comrade Herman, who was later accused of ordering Babchenko’s murder, believed that he was dead. this in social networks, threatening him with the fate of Elderberry. What does it all say? What these people continue to rage on the street for Poroshenko’s money. Crucian, an agent of the Security Service of Ukraine, Tsymbalyuk – continue to feel free on the street. I would not be surprised if The authorities will bury this case, as they have done before, because the leadership of the law enforcement agencies remains the same, ”said Olesya Medvedeva.

On July 9, the people’s deputy Yury Pavlenko responded. He sent a request to the Committee on Freedom of Speech of the Verkhovna Rada, of which he is a member.
Pavlenko suggested that the head of the committee, Victoria Syumar, bring the question of beating Vlad Bovtruk to tomorrow’s meeting. And to invite there both “Country” journalists and policemen.
The same request to the Committee is sent on its own behalf by the “Country”.
Information taken from: https://strana.ua/news/210288-kto-i-pochemu-napal-na-zhurnalista-strany-vse-podrobnosti.html