Ukraine's online community helped to identify several men who assaulted two journalists on May 18, and track their record to other rallies, raising suspicions that the men may be professional fighters for hire by political parties for such events.
After two journalists were assaulted by the group of unknown men on May 18 as the competing opposition and pro-government rallies were taking place in Kyiv, photos of the incident went viral.
Media and activists dug deep into old photos hoping to find traces of the attackers and came to the conclusion that these athletic young men were no strangers to rallies and other controversial events, including raider attacks.
One of them was identified as Vadim Titushko from Kyiv Oblast. In a video posted on Youtube on May 20, Titushko said he did not attack the journalist,
Olha Snisarchuk from Channel 5, but tried to “shield her from the crowd
so she wouldn’t get kicked.” Titushko
goes on to say he was hired by the opposition as a guard at the
rally.
Prior
to the video, Titushko was identified by the media and activists as a
professional fighter who featured at various unsavory events, including raider attacks. According to media reports,
Titushko trains in the fight club owned by one of the members of
the Party of Regions. At the same time, at the May 21 parliamentary hearings, Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko acknowleged that the man in question trains at a base that belongs to one of his ministry’s subdivisions, but brushed off any responsibility.
The picture below shows Titushko (center) during his attack on the journalists on May 18. The two men near him were later identified as Arsen Kapansky (left) and Vasyl Boyko (behind).
Another picture below shows Arsen Kapansky during the bizzare raider attack on the house of Nina Moskalenko in Kyiv. The high profile attack on a private property occured earlier in 2013 when a group of young men seized the house of a retired Kyivan in central Kyiv.
According to another picture, Kapansky took part in another clash. In early Novermber 2012, when the court in Kyiv was hearing the case of violations during the Oct. 28 local elections in Bila Tserkva near Kyiv, Kapansky was spotted in a group of young men who blocked the entrance to the court and did not let journalists in.
Vasyl Boyko has also featured in similar cases. The picture below shows a man who looks like Boyko spraying tear gas on protesters during a raider attack in Hostynnyi dvir in Dec. 2012 , a landmark building in Kyiv’s Podil district. Activists tried to stop developers from turning Hostynny dvir to a shopping and office center since May 2012, but failed.
Another man from the group was identified as Yaroslav Brynza who was photographed amoung those attacking journalists on May 18.
According to another photo, Brynza also participated at raider attack on Hostynnyi dvir.
The picture below shows an unknown man who participated in the raider attack on Nina Moskalenko’s house in Kyiv.
The man who looks similar to him is pictured with the rest of the men mentioned above, in this photo from Vkontakte, a Russian social network. The picture was posted on Titushko’s profile.
Titushko sits in the center, with the man who looks like Arsen Kapansky on the right.
