The head of the investigations department of Ukrainska Pravda (UP) Mykhailo Tkach, who was detained in Austria on October 8, has already been released.
This was reported to journalists by the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Ukraine Heorhiy Tykhyi.
He noted that Ukrainian diplomats and consuls of the Ukrainian Embassy in Austria have been working with Austrian colleagues since yesterday evening. The circumstances of the journalistʼs detention are being investigated.
Together with Tkach, cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko was detained. The consuls are now investigating whether he was also released.
"MFA, DCS [the Department of Consular Services], and the embassy are keeping the situation under control and maintaining a constant dialogue with the Austrian MFA," Tykhyi added.
UPD at 11:50 AM: the editor-in-chief of Ukrainska Pravda Sevgil Musayeva stated that Mykhailo Tkach was held in Vienna for over 12 hours and released at around 4 AM on October 9, but there has been no contact with him yet.
Musayeva recalled that the journalist had previously been detained while carrying out editorial assignments in various countries, but then he was released within an hour and a half to two hours.
In addition, according to Musayeva, Tkachʼs colleague — cameraman Bondarenko — was injured during the detention and was in the hospital. Only at night did the police begin questioning him.
The editorial office of UP is currently unaware of the procedural status of both journalists. According to the editor-in-chief, the charges brought against them are “unlike anything the editorial office has dealt with before and raise serious questions”.
“The length of the detention, the nature of the charges brought against our colleagues, Yaroslav’s injuries, and the lack of direct contact with Mykhailo cause us great concern,” Musayeva noted.
- On the evening of October 8, the editorial office of the Ukrainian Press Agency reported that their journalist Mykhailo Tkach was illegally detained in Vienna while he was carrying out an editorial assignment related to the search for former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
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