Editor’s note: This story is currently being updated.
Ukrainian investigative journalist Mykhailo Tkach said on October 9 that Austrian police had brutally arrested him and his colleague the day before and treated them “like terrorists.”
He argued that there was no evidence to support the charge against them: spying for Ukrainian military intelligence.
The Kyiv Independent has requested comment from the Austrian Interior Ministry and will publish its response as soon as it is received.
The two Ukrainian journalists arrested in Austria on October 8 are suspected of espionage, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said at a press conference on October 9.
Tkach, head of the investigative team at media outlet Ukrainska Pravda, was released, while cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko remains in custody, Karner was quoted as saying by Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung.
Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported that two suspected employees of Ukraine’s military intelligence services were also arrested in Austria.
After being released, Tkach said on October 9 that “suddenly, out of nowhere, about seven armed men wearing masks appeared and immediately smashed the windows of our car.”
As a result of the actions of the gunmen, Bondarenko was injured when shards of glass from the car hit him in the face, he added.
“They pointed their guns at us and started shouting something in German,” he said. “I immediately raised my hands and told them that we were journalists. They quickly dragged Yaroslav and me out of the car and threw us face down on the road.”
He said he kept repeating that he was a journalist, but one of the armed men put his knee on his neck and shouted at him to shut up.
“Then they dragged me to a nearby arcade, pushed me against a wall with my face turned towards it, and told me to be quiet,” Tkach said. “For the first 30 minutes, I had no idea who these people were. My first thought was that someone could have ordered our kidnapping.”
He added that “no one showed us any ID, asked us questions or offered explanations, and I didn’t notice any police marks.”
“It was like we were being arrested as terrorists,” Tkach said. “They didn’t talk to us at all. They kept yelling at us, pointing their guns at us. There was absolutely no communication.”
“At 4 a.m. on October 9, Mykhailo Tkach was released after being detained for more than 12 hours in Vienna,” Sevhil Musayeva, editor-in-chief of Ukrainian Pravda, wrote on Facebook on October 9. early in the morning. »
She added that the legal status of the two journalists is unclear.
“The allegations made against our colleagues while they were detained are unlike anything our editorial team has encountered before and raise serious questions,” Musayeva added. “We expect Austrian law enforcement authorities to explain the circumstances of our colleagues’ detention, Yaroslav’s injury and why they were detained for so long. We also await clarification on their legal status and the return of their communications devices.”
Musayeva said Tkach had previously been detained in other countries and released between an hour and an hour and a half once the circumstances were clarified.
“This is the first time that they have been detained for more than 12 hours,” she argued. “The length of their detention, the nature of the allegations against our colleagues, Yaroslav’s injuries and our inability to contact Mykhailo directly are all matters of grave concern.”
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said on October 9 that “Ukrainian diplomats and consular officials at the Ukrainian Embassy in Austria worked with their Austrian counterparts to resolve the situation.”
He said Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry was investigating the circumstances of Tkach’s detention and trying to determine whether Bondarenko had also been released.
Ukrainska Pravda criticized Tkach’s detention the day before.
“The editorial team considers this detention illegal and demands his immediate release as well as an official explanation of the actions of the Austrian law enforcement agencies,” Musayeva wrote in a statement.
The famous journalist was reportedly on an editorial mission to Vienna to track down fugitive Ukrainian prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko when he was arrested by Austrian authorities.
Ukrainska Pravda reported on September 23 that Kravchenko had moved to Austria.
Kravchenko was licensed by Parliament on September 15 as part of a major corruption investigation.
He left Ukraine on September 14, under the pretext of an official trip for a conference in Paris. But the organizers told the Kyiv Independent that they did not expect him to be present, reinforcing suspicions that the trip was just a fig leaf to flee Ukraine to avoid possible charges.
As Kravchenko left Ukraine, he approved fees against the head of the anti-corruption agency who is investigating him. The charges were later dropped as unfounded.
As one of Ukraine’s most prominent investigative journalists, Tkach helped expose corruption and money laundering within President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inner circle.
On September 29, Tkach received the Free Media Award 2026 in Oslo “for his fearless and consistent investigative journalism in wartime.”
This is not the first time Tkach has encountered difficulties in his reporting, including being attacked several times throughout his career.
Tkach and Bondarenko were previously arrested by Polish authorities while covering the transit of goods between Poland, Russia and Belarus in February 2024.
Gn world
