FISTS FLY

Pro-Russian Ukrainian Lawmaker Socked in the Face on Live TV

After the brawl, Nestor Shufrych reappeared looking bloodied and disheveled, accusing the journalist who attacked him of “scratching like a girl.”

A Ukrainian lawmaker was left bloodied and disheveled on Friday after he was socked in the face and put in a headlock on live TV. The brawl erupted on the set of Savik Shuster’s Freedom of Speech talk show during a discussion about Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. With former Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and ex-president Petro Poroshenko nearby, journalist Yuriy Butusov walked right up to Nestor Shufrych, a lawmaker with the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform—For Life, and slapped him in the face. Shufrych then stood up to fight back and the two plunged to the ground before Butusov managed to get Shufrych in a headlock, all while horrified guests yelled, “Stop!” and “Let him go!” The two were eventually pulled apart and reappeared to continue the discussion, both looking as if they’d been mauled by a feral cat. Shufrych, who had sparked the ire of his fellow guests by refusing to condemn Vladimir Putin, accused Butusov of “scratching like a girl.”

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