On October 29, 2025, the Dnipropetrovsk District Court (Dnipropetrovsk oblast) ordered the police to enter the case of death threats and insults targeting Kramatorskyi Rayon journalist Andriy Hryn into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations (URPI) and to begin a pre-trial investigation into it. The death threats were coming from Yuriy Mykuliak, the subject of Hryn’s reporting.

Andriy Hryn reported this to Yulia Harkusha, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Donetsk oblast.

Andriy Hryn received violent threats following the release of his article “From Criminal Law Case to the Recruits Academy: Ex-Suspect Mykuliak Leads ‘Sturm’ on General Kryvonos’ Behalf” on 21 October 2025.

The article concerns Yuriy Mykuliak, who was charged with death threats during an armed conflict in Svyatohirsk in 2018 and was later appointed head the Academy for Army Recruits “Sturm”. Despite the case having been closed due to the victim’s withdrawal of charges, the reasons for the appointment and the change in qualification raised questions among journalists. Now Mykuliak publicly presents as the head of a military training structure associated with General Serhiy Kryvonos, and Kramatorskyi Rayon questioned state bodies about the legality of the Academy’s work and the degree of the army’s involvement.

“In 2025, we (the Kramatorskyi Rayon team – Ed.) remembered this case and decided to send queries to the Donetsk oblast police, the oblast prosecutor’s office, to learn about the results. Based on the replies received, I wrote an article for the website,” said journalist Andriy Hryn.

A few hours after the article was released, the journalist received insults and death threats from Mykuliak, who began commenting under the media outlet’s Facebook post linking to the article (the moderators have since deleted the comments, but IMI has screenshots). Finally, the journalist contacted the police with a complaint about death threats. Having received no sufficient response from the police, the journalist went to court. The court ruled to order the law enforcement bodies to enter the case in the URPI and begin a pre-trial investigation, said Andriy Hryn.

“This ruling shows that society, journalists, and law enforcers must follow the law in equal measure: when a journalist does their job, law enforcers must respond. And when the system ignores this, it is the court that acts as the arbiter of justice. That is why we report on this: because this is not just about one person or one case, it is about defending freedom of speech and protecting journalism in an environment where it is often the media representatives who find themselves under pressure,” the journalist said.

He added that the Kramatorsk District Department of Donetsk Oblast Police had opened a case over death threats to him. The police recognised the journalist as the victim in the proceedings and interviewed him. The proceedings were qualified as death threats (Part 1, Article 129 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

“I hope that in the future the police will reclassify this case as death threats to a journalist, and not just death threats. Otherwise it sounds like that we just had a quarrel somewhere in the street,” the journalist added.

Andriy Hryn says that procedural action is underway.