The police officers who detained Hromadske journalist Yevheniy Shulhat on 27 July gave false names, and their body cameras were switched off, Hromadske reported after looking into the details of Shulhat’s detention.
The team discovered that the police and the journalist’s taxi driver had vicen different accounts as to why the vehicle was stopped, and that the names of the three police officers whom the police said had carried out the detention did not match the names given to the journalist. Moreover, the police were unable to produce any body camera footage from these officers.
According to Hromadske, police stopped the taxi carrying Yevheniy Shulhat through Kyiv and handcuffed him on 27 July. He was told he was being detained for violating army registration rules.
However, the team reports, the documents the journalist carried at the time showed that Shulhat had no recorded violations and was not listed as a wanted person.
Hromadske lawyer Illya Podvornyi explained that the army registration documents generated by the journalist in the Reserve+ app in May 2026 and again following his detention said that he was not in violation of any regulations and that such documents remained valid for one year from the date of issue. According to the lawyer, Shulhat had not been held administratively liable for violating registration rules and had not paid any fines.
“Since he had no obligation to take the military medical exam independently, had not been summoned to the enlistment office, had not been deemed ‘partially eligible’ for the draft, and no violations by him were officially recorded, the grounds for detention cited by the police are legally untenable, and the coercive action taken against Yevheniy Shulhat was unlawful,” the lawyer explained.
Shulhat says that he showed his documents to the police officers and consented to a pat-down search. The police initially confirmed in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda that their officers had checked the journalist and found that he had not taken the military medical exam, which was why he had been taken to an enlistment office. Later that evening, Kyiv police officially stated that the car had been stopped for a document check and claimed that Shulhat had refused to show his documents.
In response to a query by Hromadske, the police stated that Shulhat had been reported to the 102 emergency line during the check. The police said that Shulhat had failed to procure army registration documents, which was why he was asked to come to the Holosiivskyi district enlistment office.
The Hromadske team said that this version did not match the explanation given by the taxi company whose driver had been operating the vehicle carrying Shulhat. The company told Hromadske that the car had been stopped because of a faulty signal light, not because of a call to 102. The police only checked the passenger’s documents after the vehicle had been stopped and subsequently decided to detain the journalist.
The news outlet said that the police had not disclosed the caller or what their complaint concerning Shulhat was.
Shulhat reported that the detention was carried out by special-purpose police officers, who exerted physical force on him.
In the fragment of the conversation that Shulhat managed to record, the officers identify themselves as Ihor Mykolaiovych Serhiyenko and Mykola Serhiyovych Mykolaichuk. However, Hromadske was unable to find any mention of special-purpose police officers with these names in open sources, and the police later stated that the detention had been performed by three different officers. Hromadske lawyer Illya Podvornyi says that the law forbids law enforcers from giving false names while talking to a citizen.
Since the parties’ accounts of the event differ, Hromadske requested that the police share the body camera footage from the officers involved.
The police said that no such footage exists. The Kyiv City Police told Hromadske that an internal investigation into the matter was underway.
Shulhat has taken the military medical exam and has been drafted into the Ukrainian Armed Forces, having chosen the unit to serve in.
Yevheniy Shulhat specialises in investigating corruption. He has covered the work of the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine), the National Police, the Prosecutor’s Office, and customs authorities.
Hromadske says that the circumstances of the detention, the conflicting accounts of why the car was stopped, and the officers’ conduct, suggest purposeful pressure on the journalist. The team continues to look into the incident and is sending more queries to the police.
Previously
Hromadske reported on 27 July that their journalist Yevheniy Shulhat had been detained by Kyiv police and escorted to an enlistment office.
The Kyiv police reported that Shulhat had refused to show documents confirming his identity and military registration status, which prompted the police officers to detain him and take him to a disctrict enlistment office in the city to clarify his military registration status. As per the preliminary reports by the police, Shulhat did not take the prescribed physical exam by a military commission, either.
Shulhat was released from the enlistment center late on 27 July; he was issued a summons to take a physical examination mandatory for potential conscripts.
The Kyiv City enlistment center has confirmed that police had delivered Yevheniy Shulhat to one of their district staffing offices and that the subsequent check revealed that the journalist had not taken the prescribed medical examination.
