In early March, unnamed journalists working in Ukraine for British newspaper The Times were threatened by the public after interviewing locals who grew up in the same neighborhood in Kriviy Rih as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. According to their fixer, Ukrainian reporter Stas Kozlyuk, they were approached by a group of men who said they had called the police and demanded that they explain what they were doing, later also attempting to drag the journalists’ driver out of his car. The situation then returned to normal, but the group was again approached, this time by two women whom Kozlyuk said were “aggressive”. One of them allegedly told the Ukrainian reporter that the group should not be asking questions about Zelensky, claiming that this information was “strategic”, while also accusing Kozlyuk of working for the Kremlin. One of the women also accused him of working for Russian proxies in Eastern Ukraine and said that if she was armed she “would shoot him at this very moment”. Police later arrived to the area and enabled the journalists to leave safely.
Russia-Ukraine WarVerbal attack or intimidation by public (non online)Verbal, online or physical attack