Suspilne.Donbas producer Oleksandr Marchenko says the FSB searched for him in 2022

Suspilne.Donbas producer Oleksandr Marchenko turned war correspondent and UAF lieutenant said in an interview with ArmiyaInform that officers of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) were asking about his whereabouts in 2022.

According to Oleksandr, in 2022 FSB officers questioned a media professional about him as the former was crossing the border with Russia to leave the occupied part of Luhansk oblast. Oleksandr does not name his colleague, but notes that he traveled through Russia to a country in Europe.

Oleksandr Marchenko. Edit by Vitaliy Solonyi, ArmiyaInform

“He cleared out his phones before setting out. But FSB agents checked him at the border: they questioned him, checked his phones — they even allegedly had software that could restore everything on a phone. And during this check they asked him about me and my colleague. Why such painstaking attention? I assume it was because we were essentially running the branch,” said Oleksandr.

He added that in early 2022, Suspilne.Donbas gathered the team to discuss the current security situation and develop a plan for a potential evacuation.

“I clearly remember that at a meeting in early January, I told everyone: if the Russians do go in with full force, their speed as they reach Siverskodonetsk may be so high that we may have no time to gather and leave. Many colleagues said that they were not leaving. I warned: if it gets too hot, everyone would leave. Basically, that's almost exactly what happened,” said Oleksandr Marchenko.

He said that on February 23, 2022, the branch management handed the workers their employment papers. Later, Oleksandr, his wife and friends left for Dnipro, then for Uman. They also passed through a village near Khmelnytskyi.

“I was carrying the essentials: a backpack with documents in one hand and a carrier with our cat Ted in the other,” he said.

As the IMI reported, in December 2023, Oleksandr Marchenko returned to the battlefield after being wounded near Bakhmut.

In November 2024, on the occasion of the Ukrainian Radio 100th anniversary, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi gave out awards to the employees of the Ukrainian Radio office of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine. He presented Oleksandr Marchenko with the Order of Merit of the 3rd grade.