"We were detained like terrorists": UP journalist Mykhailo Tkach details circumstances of detention in Vienna

Mykhailo Tkach, head of Ukrainska Pravda's investigative journalism department, said that masked, armed men smashed the car windows and dragged him and cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko onto the road during their detention in Vienna. One of the men then knelt on Tkach's neck as he repeatedly said he was a journalist.

Source: Tkach in a video for UP

Quote: "It felt like we were being treated as terrorists. They didn't speak to us at all. There was just this shocking amount of shouting – everyone was yelling and pointing their weapons at us, and there was virtually no communication."

Details: Tkach said he and Bondarenko were driving between filming locations when their car stopped at a traffic light about 3-5 km from central Vienna. Seven masked, armed men then ran up to the car, smashed its windows and pointed their weapons at the journalists.

He added that he immediately raised his hand and told the men he was a journalist. They then pulled both men from the car, forced them face down onto the road, searched them and taped their hands behind their backs.

Quote: "I repeated, kept repeating, that I was a journalist, but one of the men knelt on my neck and shouted at me to shut up.

Then they dragged me – there was an archway nearby – dragged me into this archway, pulled my face against the wall again and told me to shut up."

Details: According to Tkach, the masked men who detained him did not identify themselves or explain what they were doing. He saw no badges and did not immediately notice any police markings, so for the first 30-40 minutes, he believed he and Bondarenko had been abducted.

He said he realised the men were police officers only when they led him out of the archway and he saw police cars. The journalist was then placed in a separate compartment of a minibus, which drove off with its sirens on for about 20 minutes.

Tkach said he has not seen Bondarenko since their detention. He recalled seeing shards of glass from the smashed car window fly into the cameraman's face.

At the police station, Tkach had all his belongings confiscated, was ordered to remove his shoes and was placed in a solitary cell. He said he waited there for about two hours without any explanation, despite repeatedly asking officers why he had been detained. A doctor also visited him during that time to ask how he was feeling.

Tkach said he was later taken to another room and told to strip naked. His clothes were confiscated, but his belongings were later returned. He was then weighed and measured.

He was then asked to sign a document in German. When he refused on the grounds that he did not understand its contents, the police officer became angry and began shouting, he said.

Tkach was then taken to two people he believed were investigators. Only then did a meaningful conversation begin, he said.

Background:

• On 8 October, it was reported that Tkach had been detained in Vienna while carrying out an assignment from the editorial team involving tracking down the fugitive former prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko.
• Tkach was in Austria with his colleague Yaroslav Bondarenko.
• The Ukrainian Embassy in Austria said it had asked the Austrian authorities to explain the circumstances surrounding Tkach's detention in Vienna.
• It later emerged that the Ukrainian consul had been granted access to Tkach and had spoken with him.
• In the morning, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry reported that Tkach had been released.
• Ukrainska Pravda Editor-in-Chief Sevğil Musaieva reported that Tkach had been released after being detained in Vienna, but the editorial team was unable to contact him, and that cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko was injured during the detention.
• Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner stated that Tkach was released following his detention in Vienna, but cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko remains in custody. The minister said the Ukrainians were detained on suspicion of espionage.

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