The Obolonsky District Court of Kyiv found Viktor Salyuk and Kostyantyn Kovalenko guilty of group hooliganism — in June 2024, they attacked a local volunteer because she spoke Ukrainian.
Watchers media project writes about it.
The court found them both guilty, sentencing them to 2 years of imprisonment. At the same time, the court released them from serving the sentence and appointed a probationary period of 2 years due to retirement age.
In addition, the court ordered Salyuk and Kovalenko not to leave Ukraine and to report a change of residence, as well as to periodically appear for registration at the authorized probation authority.
In June 2024, Salyuk and Kovalenko tried to talk to the volunteer girl, but she said that she did not understand the men because they spoke Russian. They started cursing obscenely. The girl started filming them on her mobile phone, but one of the suspects grabbed it from her hands and spat in the girlʼs face.
After that, another man hit the girl in the nose with his palm. The girl was able to return the phone, and the men left.
During the trial, Salyuk explained his behavior as a "psycho-neurological condition", and then allegedly sincerely apologized. Kostyantyn Kovalenko, the second defendant, denied that he had beaten the woman. In the debate, he claimed that the woman "slammed her face into his hand.”
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