New York, March 28, 2025—Ukrainian authorities should swiftly investigate a recent attack in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on a journalist apparently targeted because of his outlet’s online investigation that found a funeral company mishandled corpses, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

“CPJ condemns the assault on a journalist in Kryvyi Rih, and calls on Ukrainian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and hold the perpetrators to account,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Ukrainian authorities must ensure that journalists can work safely. No journalist should be subjected to violence for reporting matters of public interest.”

On March 24, two unidentified men approached and threatened Serhiy, a correspondent with local online media outlet SVOI.Kryvyi Rih, as he entered a store with his family, according to his outlet, media reports, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, a local advocacy and trade group, and the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), a press freedom group.  

SVOI.Kryvyi Rih founder Oleksiy Taymurzin spoke to CPJ about the incident. The journalist’s name was withheld due to fear of reprisals.

“You are all f–ed. You, and your family, and your entire editorial staff. Watch your backs. You messed with the wrong undertakers,” the individuals reportedly said, according to those sources.

The pair then beat the journalist when he came out of the store to try to talk to them away from his family.

Taymurzin believed the attack to be connected with the outlet’s March 18 report on the mishandling of corpses by a local funeral company. He said the attackers recognized Serhiy in the store. “In the city … you can’t hide anything … and there’s no problem finding out who [is who] and where” they are, he told CPJ.

Serhiy suffered a broken nose, a bruised retina, bruised ribs, and a concussion, Taymurzin told CPJ, and as of March 26, was home in an unstable state, with severe headaches and temporary loss of consciousness.

As of March 26, authorities had identified one of the suspects, charged him with “intended bodily injury of medium gravity,” and put him under house arrest pending investigation, Taymurzin said, adding that the other perpetrator was still at large.

CPJ emailed Kryvyi Rih police for comment but did not immediately receive a response. CPJ called the funeral company, but the person who answered hang up after being asked to comment on the journalist’s beating.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.