Editor’s note: This story is being updated.
Ukrainian investigative journalist Mykhailo Tkach said on Oct. 9 that the Austrian police had brutally detained him and his colleague the previous day and treated them “like terrorists.”
He argued that there was no evidence whatsoever for the accusation that they face — spying for Ukrainian military intelligence.
The Kyiv Independent has requested comment from Austria’s Interior Ministry and will publish its response once it is received.
The two Ukrainian journalists detained in Austria on Oct. 8 are suspected of espionage, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said at a press conference on Oct. 9.
Tkach, head of the media outlet Ukrainska Pravda’s investigations team, has been released, while cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko is still in custody, Karner said, as cited by the Ausrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung.
The Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported that two alleged Ukrainian military intelligence employees had also been detained in Austria.
After being released, Tkach said on Oct. 9 that “suddenly, out of nowhere, about seven armed men wearing masks appeared and immediately smashed the windows of our car.”
“They pointed their guns at us and started shouting something in German,” he said. “I immediately raised my hands and told them we were journalists. They quickly dragged Yaroslav and me out of the car and threw us face down onto the road.”
He said that 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 into a nearby archway, pushed me up against a wall with my face toward it and told me to keep quiet,” Tkach said. “For the first 30 minutes, I had no idea who these people were. My first thought was that someone might have ordered our kidnapping.”
He added that “no one had shown us any identification, asked us any questions or offered any explanation, and I hadn’t noticed any police markings.”
“It felt like we were being arrested as terrorists,” Tkach said. “They didn’t speak to us at all. They just kept shouting at us, pointing their guns at us. There was absolutely no communication.”
“At 4 a.m. on Oct. 9, Mykhailo Tkach was released after being detained for more than 12 hours in Vienna,” Sevhil Musayeva, Ukrainska Pravda’s chief editor, wrote on Facebook earlier on Oct. 9. “However, his communication devices have still not been returned, so the editorial team is currently unable to contact him directly. Our colleague Yaroslav Bondarenko was injured during the detention and was hospitalized. Police did not begin questioning him until the early hours of the morning.”
She added that the legal status of both 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 surrounding our colleagues’ detention, Yaroslav’s injury, and the reasons why both were held for so long. We also expect clarification of their legal status and the return of their communication devices.”
Musayeva said that Tkach had previously been detained in other countries and released within an hour to an hour and a half once the circumstances had been clarified.
“This is the first time they have been held for more than 12 hours,” she argued. “The length of their detention, the nature of the allegations made against our colleagues, Yaroslav’s injury, and our inability to contact Mykhailo directly are all causes of serious concern.”
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said on Oct. 9 that “Ukrainian diplomats and consular officials at the Ukrainian Embassy in Austria have been working with their Austrian counterparts to resolve the situation.”
He said that Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry is investigating the circumstances of Tkach’s detention and trying to establish if Bondarenko has also been released.
Ukrainska Pravda criticized Tkach’s detention the previous day.
“The editorial office considers this detention illegal and demands his immediate release and an official explanation for the actions of the Austrian law enforcement officers,” Musayeva wrote in an announcement.
The acclaimed journalist was reportedly on an editorial assignment in Vienna to locate fugitive Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko when he was detained by Austrian authorities.
Ukrainska Pravda reported on Sept. 23 that Kravchenko had moved to Austria.
Kravchenko was fired by parliament on Sept. 15 amid a major corruption investigation.
He left Ukraine on Sept. 14, under the pretext of an official trip to a conference in Paris. But the organizers told the Kyiv Independent that they had not expected him to attend, strengthening the suspicions that the trip was a fig leaf for fleeing Ukraine to avoid potential charges.
As Kravchenko left Ukraine, he simultaneously approved charges against the head of the anti-corruption agency investigating him. The charges were later dropped as unfounded.
As one of Ukraine’s most prominent investigative journalists, Tkach has helped expose corruption and money laundering inside President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inner circle.
On Sept. 29, Tkach received a Free Media Award 2026 in Oslo “for his dauntless and consistent investigative wartime journalism.”
This is not the first time Tkach has encountered difficulties in his reporting, including being assaulted multiple times throughout his career.
Tkach and Bondarenko were previously detained by Polish authorities while reporting on the transit of goods between Poland, Russia, and Belarus in February 2024.