MOSCOW, November 27 (Sputnik) – Evgeniya Zmanovskaya, a reporter for the Russian website and news channel LifeNews, was attacked in Kiev on Wednesday by a crowd of aggressive local journalists and football fans who came to disrupt the performance of Ukrainian pop singer Ani Lorak.
An aggressive crowd surrounded the reporter, chanting insults and demanding that the news team return to Russia.
Evgeniya was then pelted with eggs and sprayed in the face with an unknown substance. The journalist was rescued by some passers-by as she could not escape the crowd on her own.
Camerawoman Aleksandra Ulianova hadn’t switched off her camera during the incident and the footage went on air.
Members of the crew, who have already returned to Moscow due to their expiring visas, think that the attackers had hoped to demonstrate that all Russian journalists in Ukraine will be treated similarly.
The video shows that the Ukrainian police failed to intercede during the attack, which happened near the Ukraina National Palace of Arts. Later reports, however, suggested that the police have launched an investigation.
The Russian Union of Journalists said it will report the incident to the OSCE at a scheduled meeting in Vienna.
“We should approach the incident from a legal perspective and clear up who hit the journalist and how it happened,” LifeNews quoted the chairman of the union, Vsevolod Bogdanov, as saying.
Bogdanov hopes local police will conclude the investigation successfully and stresses that the launch of the investigation into the incident is a good sign in itself.
