Head of PO publishes Bihus.Info's request regarding Ukrnafta instead of providing answers
Bihus.Info editor and journalist, Alisa Yurchenko, reported that the head of the President's Office, Andriy Yermak, decided to make her request (addressed personally to him) public through his advisor, Mykhailo Podoliak. She wrote about this on Facebook and published the reply she received from Yermak.
She said that she had sent the request while working on a report about Yermak's associates being appointed to various state bodies and state-owned enterprises.
In the request, she offered Yermak to record an interview and provided the list of questions. Namely, she was going to ask him about a former employee of Andriy Yermak's legal company and the head of his office being recently appointed to the supervisory board of Ukrnafta.
"Today, we received a reply from the PO saying that Andriy Yermak had decided to publish my request – instead of answering the questions. And that he will pass the request, which was addressed to him personally, to... the staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. And a few hours later, Mykhailo Podolyak published my request, addressed to Andriy Yermak, and added the context regarding the unpublished material which he made up himself. He called it an attempt to 'cast a shadow on the joint decision... of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's staff in someone's commercial interest," Yurchenko wrote.
The journalist believes that Yermak's decision to publish her request through Podolyak is a "manipulative attempt to avoid answering all the questions raised in the request." And Podolyak has discredited the upcoming material, which he had not seen, in advance, Yurchenko noted.
Mykhailo Podolyak posted the journalist's request today on his Telegram channel. He noted that usually they do not publish requests from journalists, but "this one seemed extremely strange and, as I understand, had very specific intentions."
"And it wouldn't have been a big deal if it wasn't about searching for a black cat in a transparent room. Or, more precisely, about attempts to cast a shadow on the joint decision... of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's staff in someone's commercial interest," he wrote.
At the same time, Podolyak reminded that a full-scale war for the very existence of the Ukrainian state is going on. And, according to him, the decision to alienate Ukrnafta was made by the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
"The decision to alienate Ukrnafta (which had been in the hands of oligarchs for years), as well as four other critically important enterprises, was made by the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. This is a deliberate, balanced, joint decision adopted unanimously by the state's military-political leadership. These enterprises, including Ukrnafta, were not handed over to the President's Office. They have been handed over to the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the duration of martial law," he wrote.
"It would seem that everything is clear, obvious, on the surface. And yet, I will allow myself to ask a question back. Does anyone really want to leave an enterprise which is crucial for the military in wartime to… an oligarch? Except, of course, the oligarch himself. I am also convinced that the Staff's decision is unquestionably supported by society and the journalistic community..." wrote Podolyak.
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