Ostap Yarysh explains his dismissal from Voice of America

Ukrainian journalist Ostap Yarysh, who has been fired from Voice of America, said in a March 10 Facebook post that he had been affected by federal employee layoffs carried out as part of Elon Musk's DOGE policy.

According to him, the layoffs affected many structures funded from the US state budget, including Voice of America.

“Without going into the details of the American bureaucracy, I was in the less protected category. I was laid off together with several people from Voice of America's other broadcasting services. The decision to terminate cooperation was made by the new management of the Agency for Global Media overseeing Voice of America, based on DOGE recommendations,” he wrote.

The journalist said that the formal reason stated in his dismissal letter was that his work “was not critically important for the mission of the organization.” He was unaware of other motives for the decision, he noted.

Photo by Ostap Yarysh on Facebook

“I was informed of the dismissal unexpectedly in the middle of the working day, as I was preparing for a broadcast. I was told not to finish the task,” Yarysh wrote.

Speaking of his future, Yarysh said that he was now deciding “what to do and where to go next.”

For now, he remains in Washington and is “weighing several employment options.”

“When I have any updates, I will definitely share them. If you have proposals, write to me,” he said and thanked the Ukrainian staff of Voice of America.

He added that due to editorial policy, the media outlet's team cannot publicly comment on the situation with his dismissal. He advised to contact him personally or the Voice of America PR department with any questions.

Previously

Detector Media director Natalia Lyhachova reported on Facebook on March 7 that journalist Ostap Yarysh had been fired from the Ukrainian service of the Voice of America. She said that the journalist was fired during an inspection by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is coordinated by Elon Musk.

Later that day, Ostap Yarysh confirmed ending his work with Voice of America.