KIEV, Ukraine - A prominent Ukrainian civic activist and journalist was brutally beaten Wednesday outside Kiev in the latest in a string of attacks on activists and opposition members as weeks of protests calling for the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych and his Cabinet persist.
Hundreds of journalists and opposition activists gathered Wednesday outside the Interior Ministry headquarters in Kiev, demanding the resignation of Interior Minister Vitali Zakharchenko after the attack on Tetyana Chernovil.
Some held pictures of Chernovil, who has also been one of the leaders of mass demonstrations that have rocked the Ukrainian capital for more than a month since Yanukovych decided to scrap a deal with the European Union in favor of forging stronger ties with Russia.
Chernovil has written for the online publication Ukrainska Pravda, as well as other pro-opposition news outlets.
“Shame! Shame!” yelled the demonstrators, some of whom held pictures of Chernovil’s battered, bruised and swollen face.
Chernovil, 34, was attacked as she was driving home. Her car was cornered by a sport utility vehicle. When she tried to flee, she was beaten by several men. Chernovil suffered a concussion as well as nose and face fractures, said her husband, Mykola Berezovy.
The attack took place hours after Chernovil published an article on a posh suburban residence that she claimed was being built for Zakharchenko.
The protesters have been demanding Zakharchenko’s resignation after a violent crackdown on a small rally last month left dozens injured. They also have accused Zakharchenko and other members of Yanukovych’s inner circle of profiting while other Ukrainians suffer.
Yanukovych is accused of illegally appropriating a giant estate outside Kiev and building a palatial complex in what critics have called an example of corruption. He denies owning the estate and says he only occupies a small house on its territory.
Chernovil unsuccessfully ran for the parliament on the opposition ticket last year.
In the run-up to the election last summer, she also broke into the heavily guarded estate where Yanukovych lives in an attempt to expose purported corruption there.
Yanukovych condemned the attack Wednesday and ordered a thorough investigation.
The U.S. Embassy said in a statement, “We express our concern at a strikingly similar series of events over the last few weeks, targeting individuals, property, and political activity.”
World boxing champion and opposition leader Vitali Klitschko accused the authorities of trying to intimidate opposition activists and called for a nationwide boycott of the government.
“They want to paralyze people with fear. This is not going to happen,” Klitschko said.
The attack on Chernovil was the latest against activists.
On Tuesday, Dmytro Pylypets, an organizer of opposition protests in the eastern city of Kharkiv, was beaten and stabbed by unknown assailants.
Members of the watchdog group Road Control, which has accused Ukraine’s traffic police of corruption, also say they’ve been subjected to attacks since they started helping protesters in the sprawling protest encampments in Kiev.
In recent weeks, two of their activists were arrested, one was beaten, and another one was shot after he refused to disclose information about the group.
The group has posted videos that they say show officers extorting and accepting bribes. It also claims to have exposed a scheme where police tow cars to private parking spots purportedly owned by people affiliated with the police. After the car owners spend days trying to contest fines, they are reportedly slapped with huge parking bills.
“They want to destroy us - either jail us or chase us away abroad or just kill us off one by one,” claimed group spokesman Yehor Vorobyov.
Authorities have denied waging a campaign against the group.
“There has been no so called hunt,” Interior Ministry spokesman Serhiy Burlakov said. “We only act within the framework of the law.”
Burlakov said police are investigating cases of purported bribe taking, but he denied the existence of the parking scheme.
Oleksandra Matveichuk, head of the Center for Civic Freedoms, said the harassment of activists goes to the heart of the anti-government protests spreading through Ukraine.
“Here we are witnessing clear politically motivated persecution in various ways,” Matveichuk said.
“If people who defend human rights are attacked … it means we can no longer speak of any democracy. The line has been crossed.”
Front Section, Pages 6 on 12/26/2013