The reason for the detention of the head of the investigative journalism department of Ukrainska Pravda (UP) Mykhailo Tkach and cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko could have been the testimony of people associated with the former Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko.
Tkach himself stated this in a conversation with the editor-in-chief of UP Sevgil Musayeva.
Journalists have already contacted Austrian law enforcement to obtain all materials about the people who gave testimony.
"As of now, we can already say that the people who provided these testimonies may be connected to the hero of the material that we came to film in Vienna — Ruslan Kravchenko. It was his entourage," said Tkach.
He added that at the time of the interrogation, Austrian investigators already knew that they had detained Ukrainian journalists, which they directly told him.
Tkach is convinced that the influence of both the Austrian and Ukrainian authorities may be involved in this whole story.
"None of the representatives of the Ukrainian authorities are interested in Ruslan Kravchenko returning to Ukraine and for journalists to find him and for him to talk to us. Therefore, I believe that naturally this story could not have happened only on the basis of the testimony of some people who may be connected to Kravchenkoʼs entourage," the journalist noted.
Detention of the UP journalists in Vienna
On October 8, the editorial office of the Ukrainska Pravda (UP) reported that Mykhailo Tkach and cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko were illegally detained in Vienna, where they were preparing a story about former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
Tkach was released on October 9, and Bondarenko was released a little later. Tkach said that they were detained "like terrorists: without explanation, they broke the windows in the car, pointed weapons at them, and forced them to lie face down on the road."
Bondarenko was injured during the arrest: shards of glass cut his hand and got stuck under his eye. He was taken to the hospital after being taken to the pre-trial detention center, and during the operation, they refused to remove the handcuffs.
The Vienna prosecutorʼs office later said that Tkach and Bondarenko were detained based on eyewitness accounts that three people were watching the same place at the same time.
Two of them had been detained earlier (Austrian media reported that they were Ukrainian intelligence officers), and when the third was detained, there was another person in the car with him. The Austrians insist that at the time of the detention they did not know that they were a journalist and a cameraman from UP. Only later did they admit that the journalists had no connection to the previously detained Ukrainians.
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