Yesterday morning, the streets of Kiev were plastered with images of a young woman's bruised and swollen face. The almost unrecognisable photograph was of Tetyana Chernovil, a journalist known for her investigations into government corruption, who was in intensive care yesterday preparing for a series of operations to repair her face, shattered in a beating by unknown assailants.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the interior ministry headquarters, accusing authorities of ordering police officers to carry out the attack.
"It is a shame to beat women on the head," the crowd chanted. "Zakharchenko is an executioner. He should resign," others cried, referring to the interior minister, Vitaly Zakharchenko – reviled by the opposition activists who for the past month have led hundreds thousands of Ukrainians in protest against the Russian-allied government.
Chernovil (34) has been badly disfigured by the assault. Her colleagues at the Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper recount Chernovil's description of how her attackers chased her before beating her up in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Driving home
Chernovil told police she was driving home when she noticed she was being followed by a dark SUV, which then forced her off the road. Several men jumped out and smashed her rear window, dragged her from the car, beat her and abandoned her in a ditch, a police statement said.
“It is scary and very sad to see what they have done to Tetyana,” said Chernovil’s friend and colleague Maria Lebedeva.
Chernovil was known for her investigations and protests against alleged corruption among senior state officials, including Mr Zakharchenko.
From the hospital bed where doctors are treating her for concussion, a fractured facial bone, a severely broken nose and bruising, Chernovil told friends that on the day of the attack, she had written about Mr Zakharchenko’s luxurious estate, which she said was unaffordable on a government salary.
Chernovil – as much an activist as a journalist – has also led investigations into police brutality.
Lebedeva described how, earlier this month, she had photographed Chernovil leading a group of activists to Mr Zakharchenko’s apartment building carrying a stuffed figure of a policeman bearing the word “executioner”.
“The activists put that policeman into a rubbish bag – the idea was to say, if the minister does not resign, people will think of all policemen as garbage,” Lebedeva said.
Gen Vitaly Yarema – a former Kiev police chief who has joined the opposition protests – told local media that Chernovil had "suffered for her social activism".
Gen Yarema is leading an independent investigation into her attack from opposition headquarters on Independence Square, Kiev – the focal point for the anti-government protest movement. He is studying video footage captured by a camera in Chernovil’s car, which her supporters say shows the three attackers and the licence plate of the car they were driving.
Opposition deputy
"I believe we will quickly find out the truth with the help of Gen Vitaly Yarema, a professional criminal investigator on this case," said an opposition parliament deputy, Anatoly Gritsenko, in an interview.
Hundreds of reporters took to Kiev’s streets to protest yesterday and vowed to continue the investigations Chernovil had started. By the afternoon, a cavalcade of 15 cars and a bus full of journalists had set off for Mr Zakharchenko’s summer cottage.
“In spite of violence used against protesters, reporters and activists are determined to go right to the minister’s windows to support their colleague,” said Mari Bastashevski, a researcher and contemporary artist
After more than a month of pro-EU protests in Kiev, Chernovil's case has rapidly become a symbol for the Ukrainian opposition and a totem behind which Ukraine's journalists – hampered by routine violence and rights abuses – are rallying around. – (Guardian service)