Stringers of "112 Ukraina" had covert instructions to find negative information about Ukrainian military - "Kryvbas" press officer

The press officer of the territorial defense battalion «Kryvbas » Andriy Mikheichenko disproved claims of the three stringers of the channel «112 Ukraina» that were detained in the Anti-Terrorist operation zone – Roman Hnatiuk, Serhiy Belous, and Serhiy Boyko about cruel treatment they endured, as well as explained why these journalists were detained. Mikheichenko confirmed that the stringers of the channel «112 Ukraina» were indeed detained by the battalion «Kryvbas» fighters.

As thousands of people are fleeing the hostilities zone, some of them are people that cooperated with the terrorists or participated in their criminal activities, or plain criminals. That is why, fighters of the "Kryvbas" battalion check everybody passing their checkpoints with special attention and detain those that raise suspicion. Three young men that called themselves the journalists of the TV channel «112 Ukraina» were riding in a taxi and were detained because a photo in the passport of one of them lacked an official stamp. During the search, the fighters found on the journalists a footage of an interview with Ihor Strelkov (Girkin), as well as covert instructions with the list of priority topics for stories for the channel, like, ‘Alcohol abuse in Ukrainian army’, ‘Destruction of residential buildings by Ukrainian army’, and so on. The journalists explained that under an editorial assignment they went to film the refugee camp, and after that were looking for the stories by themselves.  

Mikheichenko also explained that «Kryvbas» is not a unit under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and is not allowed to conduct investigations, so they transferred the detained journalists to the local law enforcement agencies in Mariupol (Donetska oblast) together with their equipment. He says they applied no physical or other violence to the detained.  

Hnaiuk, in his turn, said he receives his editorial assignments on the cell phone or via email so he would not have had any covert instructions printed out or even written by hand.

Serhiy Belous, who works for the pro-Russian Serbian media outlet, informed that he had his notepad with his own comments written on it, and the military took an interest in it. On August 6, during the press conference he also said that the military took their equipment and money.