A prominent Ukrainian investigative journalist who has often criticized high-ranking government officials said on Monday that his home was visited by unknown men who tried to break down his door and invite him to join the army, Reuters reported.

Journalist Yuriy Nikolov said that he did not know who was responsible for this violence, and that only his mother was at home during the incident that happened on Sunday in Kyiv, News.ro reports. He was at a friend’s house watching the finals of the Masters snooker tournament.

“So these bastards only scared my elderly mother who lives with me after (cancer treatment),” he wrote on Telegram.

The police said that they are establishing the details of the incident.

Speaking on national television, Nikolov highlighted a post by a popular pro-government blogger, whose real identity is unknown, who suggested that the incident was connected to the journalist’s disparaging comments about the president of Ukraine.

Nikolov accused Zelensky of “failing to fulfill his duties”

Two weeks ago, Nikolov accused President Volodymyr Zelensky of failing in his “duty to lead a country at war” by failing to take responsibility for reporting bad news, and compared him to a person who evades registration.

According to public opinion polls, Zelensky still enjoys the support of the vast majority of Ukrainians, but public criticism of his leadership has increased in the second year of the war.

A spokesman said the president’s office would not comment on the incident until police have made their findings based on the evidence.

Nikolov claims that several men tried to break down the door of his apartment and started shouting and asking him to join the army. “Some guys broke down the door, shouted for me to go and serve (in the Armed Forces), pasted over the door with papers,” the journalist reported on Facebook.

“Traitor”

In a post by an anonymous Telegram channel that supports Zelenskyi, it is claimed that the invasion was carried out by fighters who had returned from the front.

Nikolov was harshly criticized in the post. The same account also uploaded a video of at least two men banging on a door, shouting “provocateur” and “traitor” and pasting up pieces of paper with offensive messages. The channel has no identifiable owner.

Two other anonymous but popular and pro-Zelensky Telegram channels also published messages attacking Nikolov on Monday.

One of the channels is the one Nikolov had in mind when he reported the incident on public television.

Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, an opposition lawmaker who heads the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech, said that, in his opinion, the incident meets the legal definition of obstructing the work of a journalist.

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