The National Police have begun an investigation into threats directed at a female Ukrainian journalist.
"The woman received a text message with threats and contacted law enforcement," police said. "The Podilsk Police Investigation department launched a criminal investigation under article 345-1 (threats or violence against a journalist) of Ukraine’s Criminal Code. The article implies up to three years of imprisonment."
The name of the woman has not been disclosed, but on February 12 journalist Khrystyna Berdynskykh said on Facebook that she had received a text message from an unrecognized number with a direct threat. If she didn’t stop her investigations into the publicly-run Kyivgaz company, her "gravestone will be next to Gongadze’s," the text said.
Heorhiy Gongadze, an investigative Ukrainian journalist, was murdered in 2000.
At the time she wrote that she had contacted the police Podilsk police department.
Berdynskykh recently published an article in Novoye Vremya magazine about the alleged corruption of Yuriy Boyko, an official during Viktor Yanukovych's rule who serves as an MP now, and his son-in-law, who is involved in Kyivgaz.