More than 20 men tried to block Dmytro Gnap, a former investigative journalist turned presidential candidate, from attending a traveling session of Poltava Oblast Council in the village of Shyshaky on Oct. 19, the journalist said.

An unidentified person also threw a bucket of feces on Gnap, who said he had come to the council meeting to stop councilors from allocating five gas fields to a group of suspicious private firms, Gnap wrote on Facebook on Oct.19.