Beaten Belsat's journalist: Berkut officers were dragging my head on the ground (Video)

Officers of Berkut police were shooting at people as they were dispersing a rally in Cherkasy.

Belsat's journalist Siarhei Marchyk, who was beaten by the Ukrainian riot police together with his colleague Yury Vysotski, told details to charter97.org.

“We arrived in Cherkasy with the Automaidan group to make a story about independent journalists, including those working in regions, about Tetiana Chornovol, who also was in the group. But it suddenly went wrong. Berkut police appeared after several attempts to attack the local administration building. I can't say exactly how many police officers were there, but they ran and began to beat all protesters, fire rubber bullets at a distance of one or one and a half metres. They attacked independent journalists and destroyed most of their cameras,” he said.

Siarhei Marchyk notes most journalists, including himself and Yury, were taken to hospital.

“Our camera and footage were destroyed. My colleague Yury Vysotski has injuries on his face and an eye injury. He can hardly talk. They were dragging my head on the ground and beating with batons. I wore a bulletproof vest. It saved me from rib fractures. But I didn't wore a helmet, so I have 11 stitches on my head. We are in Kyiv now, trying to recover,” the journalist added.

Protests in Ukraine that began more than two months ago over failure to sign an Association Agreement with the EU spread across the country. News about attacks or attempts to take over regional administrations on Sunday came from a number of regions, including Eastern ones. Regional governors are appointed by president Yanukovych, that's why thousands of protesters gathers near local administrations. Violent clashes took place in Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk on Sunday. Protesters seized the administration without a struggle in Sumy and began to set up barricades. Berkut police dispersed the protesters in Zaporizhia on Monday night and began to catch them in the town. The authorities in Odessa gathered 1,000 defenders and avoided the seizure. Residents of Donetsk, where clashes took place, were called to defend administrative buildings via text messages.