US condemns 'disturbing' beating of Ukraine opposition journalist

The United States on Thursday expressed concern over the targeting of journalists and activists taking part in pro-EU rallies in Ukraine, calling the savage beating of one opposition journalist "particularly disturbing."

Opposition leaders have been locked in a standoff with President Viktor Yanukovich over his decision to scrap key political and free trade agreements with the European Union last month.

"The United States expresses its grave concern over an emerging pattern of targeted violence and intimidation towards activists and journalists who participated in or reported on the EuroMaidan protests," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a release.

"The violent beating of journalist Tetyana Chornovil is particularly disturbing," she said.

Hundreds of protesters clutching pictures of Chornovil's badly bruised face marched on the Interior Ministry in Kiev, demanding Ukraine's interior minister, Vitaly Zakharchenko, resign Thursday.

The attack on Chornovil, shortly after midnight on Wednesday, came hours after she posted pictures online of what she said was Zakharchenko's home, part of a campaign to expose the opulence of the political elite under Yanukovich.

Chornovil, who has played an active role in the protests, shot to prominence last year when she infiltrated the grounds of Yanukovich's opulent residence in a park near the Dnieper River.

She has since posted more photographs of homes of other senior officials, Zakharchenko was her target on Tuesday. Hours after she posted the picture to her blog, she was allegedly attacked.

Chornovil was chased on a road outside the capital. A dashboard camera on her car captured a black Porsche Cayenne ramming into her car before at least two men jumped out. Next, according to the police report, the journalist was pulled from her car, beaten on the head and thrown into a ditch.

"When a very, very posh car is ramming you first on the side, then from behind, then from the front you understand that they've been paid already for your life," a beaten and bloodied Chornovil told local television station Channel 5, laying on a hospital bed.

The attack came after a local pro-EU activist was stabbed in both thighs in the eastern city of Kharkiv on Tuesday evening.

The United States called on Ukraine to "to send an unequivocal message that violence against critics of the government and those who are working towards a modern, democratic and prosperous Ukraine will not be tolerated," Psaki said, emphasizing that the U.S. and its European allies would be watching closely.

Yanukovich's decision to scrap the EU pact sparked the largest protests since the pro-democracy Orange Revolution in 2004, but the demonstrations have been losing their momentum following a bailout deal with Russia last week.

Still hundreds continue to camp out in Kiev's Independence Square. Protesters have been occupying Kiev's central Independence Square, known locally as Maidan, since late November, but opposition leaders have been unable to shake Yanukovich from his perch.

Wire services