Jaw-dropping moment a passer-by punches a reporter during a live TV broadcast in Russia

A Russian reporter working for a pro-Kremlin TV channel was attacked live on air as he broadcast on the annual Paratroopers Day celebrations.

Nikita Razvozzhayev had just started his piece to camera today at Gorky Park in Moscow where the commemoration was taking place in front of some fountains, the Daily Mail reports.

Almost immediately, a seemingly drunk man appears clenching his fist and starts swearing.

When the NTV journalist asks him to be quiet, the man punches him hard in the jaw and sends him staggering sideways.

The victim was describing the paratroopers as heroes in his report, saying: "Nobody celebrates their day like them."

His attacker bursts into the frame shouting, "We'll take Ukraine," and swearing heavily, according to The Moscow Times.

After punching the reporter, seemingly for being told to quieten down, he says: "Who are you to talk to me in that way."

The cameraman picks up the aftermath of the reporter staggering around holding the side of his face while his attacker follows him, continuing to shout and swear.

He says: "If you are going to talk to me like that I will f***ing beat you."

As people watch on in horror in the background, the coverage cuts to a shocked-looking anchor.

It had previously been reported in other media outlets the man was an ex-paratrooper, but the Moscow branch of the Interior Ministry promptly responded saying he had never been a member of the Russian Armed Forces.

The man is wearing a T-shirt with OPLOT written on it - a terrorist organisation that tried to seize control of an administrative building in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

He was arrested soon after.