A journalist working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty says that her car was burned in what may have been retaliation for her reporting.
At midnight on Jan. 30, a masked man set Halyna Tereshchuk’s car on fire in Lviv, a city of 724,000 people located 540 kilometers to the west of Kyiv, RFE/RL reported.
The Mitsubishi Colt hatchback was parked in the yard near the multi-story apartment building where Tereshchuk lives with her husband.
“At 12 p.m. the car alarm went off. My husband looked out the window and the car was already burning. Neighbors also saw it,” Tereshchuk told local media outlet Tvoemisto.tv.
Later, video from security cameras showed that an unknown individual walked up to the car, put several packages under the windshield wipers and set them on fire with a lighter.
Tereshchuk’s neighbor also saw the scene from the window and shouted for the man to stop, as all the houses on the street might catch fire. But the arsonist said that he only needed to burn this one car.
Tereshchuk says she does not know why she was targeted. She believes it might be connected to her work as a journalist.
“I myself want to know why it was done, what the purpose was,” Tereshchuk said. She had not received any threats or hints that this could happen, she added.
Currently, the police and the Security Service of Ukraine are investigating the fire.
According to Vasyl Vykonsky, the National Police chief in Lviv Oblast, the best experts are investigating the crime.
“We’re doing our best to find out about the circumstances of the fire, as well as about those (persons), who were involved in it,” Vykonsky said, according to the Galinfo news site.
Tereshchuk’s case is just one of many incidents of attacks on and harassment of journalists. In 2019 alone, law enforcement registered 75 cases of violence against journalists.
Kyiv and Odesa oblasts were the most dangerous places for journalists based upon this measure.
Journalists have also been killed after reporting on corruption by state officials. Despite public pressure, investigations into these cases have dragged on for years and the perpetrators have often not been brought to justice.
Since 1991, when Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union, more than 50 journalists have been killed across Ukraine. They include people like Georgiy Gongadze, Vadym Komarov and Ihor Aleksandrov.
