Ukrainska Pravda journalist Tkach assaulted while filming

Journalist Mykhailo Tkach from online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda said on Nov. 18 that he had been assaulted by a security guard while shooting video near a restaurant late on the previous day, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

He said that former high-ranking employees of the Prosecutor General's Office had been seen at the restaurant.

In a video published by Ukrainska Pravda, a man can be seen trying to block the journalist's vehicle. When Tkach exited the vehicle and identified himself, he said the man swung at him, striking him once on the camera and once on the body.    

Tkach said the man who assaulted him was part of one of the VIP guests' security detail. The restaurant, Tandyr, is in Kozyn, a high-end Kyiv suburb where many Ukrainian politicians and top officials live.

Tkach, head of Ukrainska Pravda's investigative journalism unit, is one of Ukraine's better-known investigative journalists, who has been assailed multiple times throughout his career.

How Zelensky’s administration moves to dismantle press freedom in Ukraine

When President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Servant of the People party swept into power in 2019, the president’s office famously said it “doesn’t need journalists.” Instead, Andriy Bohdan, the head of the president’s office at the time, said that Zelensky’s team could communicate “directly” with the

The Kyiv IndependentIgor Kossov