Yevheniia Kutnova - attack 04.08.2025

On 4 August 2025, the YouTube channel Fabrika Novyn — ranked among the top five Ukrainian-language news channels in July 2025 (49.1 million views, alongside TSN – 93.7 million, Censor.NET – 53.7 million, and Pryamyi – 50.6 million) — published a podcast hosted by journalist Yevheniia Kutnova together with Ukrainian military expert Roman Svitan. The episode was titled “SVITAN: Urgent! Ukrainian breakthrough towards Homel, Belarusian insurgent regiments advance. Diversionary raid on Bryansk”.

In the comments section under the episode, users posted numerous sexist, derogatory, and offensive remarks targeting the journalist’s appearance, intelligence, and professional competence, as well as sexualised comments unrelated to the discussion topic. Some contained clear elements of hate speech and gender-based online violence, for example: “This Zvezdunya Zhenya. Together with Svitan”, “Better if she kept quiet”, “Ugly”, “I also want her”, “Can she cook borscht?”, “Yevhenia poorly covered up the decomposition spots on her face and hard chancres on her lips from syphilitic angina”.

Such comments demean the journalist’s dignity, question her professional abilities based on gender, sexualise her image, and foster a hostile online environment. This case illustrates that even content on serious socio-political topics can expose female presenters to gender-based abuse and discrimination.