"Identification action": Poland police on detaining journalist Tkach

Following the news of Ukrainian Pravda journalist Mykhailo Tkach and his cameraman being detained at the Poland–Belarus border, the Polish Lublin police confirmed carrying out "identification activities" near the border the day before in a post on Twitter (X), reports "European Pravda".

"Police officers from the Lublin garrison (Łuków checkpoint) took action due to the need to identify the people whose presence in the border area worried the citizens. The people left the police station after their identity was verified," the post reads.

Photo: screenshot of the post by the Lublin police

The Polish police did not mention the names and nationalities of the people whom they were trying to identify.

After being released together with the cameraman, Mykhailo Tkach reported that they were released and given their things back. He confirmed that part of the footage they had made had been deleted and the charging wires in the car had been ripped out.

"I understand that they have a job to do, but I have mine. And we have not been treated like this in a long time. Four hours without the right to a call, without phones, and two hours standing in the courtyard of the commandant's office without permission to sit down, watching our personal belongings being scattered on the car's hood. It's a shame about the footage. But we'll film more," the journalist added.

The media outlet pointed out that the Lublin police's post came out almost at the same time as the post by the Podlasie police, which said that they "did not detain a journalist from Ukraine" and that the reports about this were fake news.

Photo: screenshot of the Podlasie police's post on X

Mykhailo Tkach detained in Poland

On February 27, 2024, the Polish police detained Mykhailo Tkach and his cameraman near the Poland–Belarus border as the journalist was filming a report on the transit of goods between Poland and Russia, Belarus. Some of the footage was deleted by the Polish law enforcers.

According to Tkach, during the interrogation at the commandant's office, he said that he was a journalist and that his team was filming Poland's trade with Russia through Belarus and Poland's trade with Belarus, the agricultural products going from Russia and Belarus to Poland.

"It was obvious that the representatives of the Polish special service were scared. They started asking me who else knew about it, whether the Ukrainian authorities, the Ukrainian government knew about it. They asked who our sources were, how we found out about it, how long we have been working on this topic," the journalist said.