Maryna Shashkova - attack 01.10.2024

On October 1, 2024, a post targeting journalist Maryna Shashkova, then a representative of the Telegraf outlet, appeared on the Telegram channel “News of Truth: Oleshko’s Blog.”

“A government propagandist and journashlyukha [presstitute] of the Telegraf outlet, Maryna Shashkova, is unhappy that prominent Western media are publishing articles about the realities that await us – peace negotiations and Zelensky surrendering territories,”
the post reads. It was a reaction to Shashkova’s Facebook post about the way Western media cover the course of the war in Ukraine. The Telegram channel in question is run by blogger Myroslav Oleshko, who previously left Ukraine illegally, evading military service.

The post also contained comments from Telegram users — Oleshko’s followers — that exhibited signs of gender-based disinformation and hate speech directed at the journalist, such as:

• “Green puke bitch”
• “Not a human being, but an animal”
• “She’s stupid”
• “Typical khokhlyarva”

And others.

“I don’t often encounter such comments or attempts at hate. I try to take part in social media discussions as little as possible — it makes no sense. But if something like this happens, I don’t react strongly. I understand that the people who have the courage to write these comments don’t have the courage to say them to my face. Sometimes it’s even interesting to see how far they are willing to go in their expressions. Besides, I know they will forget about me tomorrow because they’ll find a new ‘victim,’”
said Maryna Shashkova in a comment to Women in Media.

She also added that after this incident, Oleshko attempted to mobilize bots against her, but she decided to respond only to comments from people she personally knows.