Mariana Pietsukh - attack 16.06.2025

Report named “With Axes and a Grenade: How the Hutsuls of Bukovina Fight for the Church,” was released on June 16, 2025 on Hromadske YouTube channel. In that story, the reporter Marianna Pietsukh covered the conflict between supporters of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the village of Ust-Putyla, Chernivtsi region. While filming, Mariana Pietsukh was chased off church property and cursed at.

Comments containing signs of sexism, hate speech, and online defamation against the journalist and the media were recorded under the video, namely:

• “lose a little weight, just eat less”
• “Provocateur. Did you make any money?”
• “This is a slutty provocateur”
• “People, don’t believe her, she is a provocateur… The people are defending their rights at the legal level. The church was, is and will be Ukrainian, and those who serve according to Old Slavonic, then Russia did not yet exist, and the language already existed and holy Kyivan Rus existed”
• “Together with prostitutes who do not think about the future, but stupidly work out the “bone” that the criminal authorities throw at them in the shit…”

In one comment, someone even suggested prosecuting Hromadske “under Article 161 (at a minimum),” referring to Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on “Violation of equality of citizens depending on their race, nationality, religious beliefs, disability and other grounds,” and giving the outlet “a life sentence,” accusing it of serving the “criminal regime.”