Investigative journalist Mykhailo Tkach, who was detained yesterday in Austria, has been released. The Foreign Ministry’s press service reported this on the morning of 9 October.
Since yesterday evening, Ukrainian diplomats and consular staff at the Embassy of Ukraine in Austria have been working with their Austrian counterparts to ensure the situation surrounding the journalists’ detention was resolved. The Foreign Ministry thanked Austrian diplomats for their appropriate response.
“We continue working to clarify the circumstances of the detention. In addition to Mykhailo Tkach, cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko was also detained — consular staff are now finding out whether he has been released as well. Protecting the rights of Ukrainian citizens is an unconditional priority. The Foreign Ministry, the Consular Service Department, and the embassy are keeping the situation under control and maintaining constant dialogue with Austria’s Foreign Ministry,” said the ministry’s spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi.
Update. As of this morning, the editorial team at Ukrainska Pravda still had not been able to reach Tkach, editor-in-chief Sevhil Musaieva reported.
“At 4 a.m. on 9 October… Mykhailo Tkach was released after more than 12 hours of detention in Vienna. However, his means of communication have still not been returned, so the newsroom is currently unable to contact him directly. Our colleague Yaroslav Bondarenko was injured during the detention and was in hospital. Only during the night did the police begin questioning him,” she said.
The procedural status of both journalists is unknown.
Mykhailo Tkach and Yaroslav Bondarenko in Vienna were working on a report about former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, who travelled abroad in September under the pretext of an official business trip and has still not returned. On the evening of 8 October, the Ukrainska Pravda newsroom reported that its staff had been detained. Contact with them was lost. The newsroom called the detention unlawful.
“Mykhailo and Yaroslav went to Vienna to do their job. As editor-in-chief, I insist that journalists’ safety and the right to carry out their professional work must be guaranteed. We expect the Austrian authorities to take immediate action, provide transparent explanations, and uphold all the rights of our colleagues,” editor-in-chief Sevhil Musaieva said.