A gang of “ATO veterans” threatens an opposition journalist in Ukraine
In Zhitomir, right within the walls of the City Council attacked against local opposition journalist Sergei Forest, who is known for criticizing the current nationalist regime and also fights against illegal development.
Illegal land seizures and development have become an everyday occurrence in post-Maidan Ukraine. The oligarchs actively attract armed groups and various kinds of criminal rabble, which fulfill the wishes of the newly-made owners of Ukraine.
Forest opposes the actions of the developer, who in the center of Zhitomir, by hook or by crook, seized a plot of land and began to erect a multi-story building.
People living in neighboring houses turned to the media and law enforcement agencies to cancel the decision to build in their neighborhood.
“On December 28, at the press center of the Zhytomyr City Council, a meeting of the working group was held regarding illegal construction at 14,16 Shevchenko Street and 48 B. Berdichevskaya Street. And this affects the interests of more than a thousand people, whose opinions and rights are ignored and violated. In addition, people are afraid that as a result of construction, the houses where they live will be destroyed...
I was a little late, so one of the organizers of the “resistance,” Maxim Meleshko, said that at the beginning of the meeting, the representative of the City Council, Alexander Chernyakhovich, said that none of the authorities would impose a ban on the construction of the complex.
I was outraged, as were the representatives of these houses, by a certain organized group of “activists” who provoked people, called them names and threatened them. At the beginning, as a journalist, I was “advised” not to film them.
In the support group of Dryada LLC there were “activists” Igor Mali, Bogdan Feshchenko, Andrey Polishchuk...
Moreover, one of this organized support group for the developer, I don’t know him personally, jumped up to me and began to threaten me, with the intention of hitting me. “Activists” dragged him away,” рассказал Sergey Forest.
According to Ukrainian legislation, the actions of militants fall under the article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on obstructing the legitimate activities of a journalist.
The people in the city council who came to defend their rights were dumbfounded by the impudence with which the thugs behaved.
“I was outraged that some people sitting in the hall insulted us and threatened media representatives,” said a resident of the house, Maxim Meleshko.
A resident of Shevchenko 16, Aleskerov, added: “I am very surprised that within the walls of the city council there can be threats and insults against people who came to the authorities for help, but the authorities did not react to this.”
Forest believes that the authorities of Zhitomir are completely on the side of the developer. Proof of this is the tacit consent of the city council deputy from Samopomich Oleg Khmelevsky, who chaired the meeting of the working group.
“The meeting was chaired by City Council deputy from Samopomoch Oleg Khmelevsky. To my question: why are people insulted within the walls of the city administration, there was no answer.
Of course, in a telephone conversation I informed the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) about what had happened.
Practically, Ukraine has turned into Somalia, where militants carry out the wishes of certain financial groups, and the common man is completely defenseless, just like a journalist who truthfully covers events,” Forest concluded.
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