Berlin, October 9, 2026—Austrian authorities must urgently explain why Ukrainian investigative journalist Mykhailo Tkach and his colleague Yaroslav Bondarenko were violently detained in Vienna on Thursday and held for more than 12 hours on suspicion of espionage, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Friday.
Both men work for the independent news website Ukrainska Pravda. Editor-in-chief Sevgil Musaieva told CPJ on Friday that cameraman Bondarenko was injured during the incident and treated in hospital before being questioned by the police. Tkach was freed in the early hours of Friday morning, though police retained his devices. Bondarenko was released later on Friday.
Tkach told Ukrainska Pravda that they were stopped at a traffic light in Vienna when armed masked men smashed the car windows and dragged him and Bondarenko onto the road. He repeatedly said he was a journalist but one of the men kneeled on his neck. Bondarenko was injured by glass from the broken windows, Tkach said.
“It is shocking to hear of two journalists being detained in such an aggressive manner in a European capital city, and with so little transparency as to why they were held for so long and questioned. While we are relieved to see that both Mykhailo Tkach and Yaroslav Bondarenko have now been released, we call on the Austrian authorities to provide a full explanation as to why they were treated this way,” said Fiona O’Brien, CPJ’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia.
Tkach said he initially feared he was being kidnapped and only realized the masked men were police after seeing their vehicles.
“I kept repeating that I was a journalist, but one of the men pressed his knee against my neck and shouted at me to shut up … Then they dragged me, pushed me up against the wall again and ordered me to stay quiet,” he said in a video interview with his editor.
The Austrian Interior Ministry said the men were detained on suspicion of espionage and that two other Ukrainians were also detained for the same reason earlier in the week, according to news reports. Those two men remain in custody.
A statement from the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office on October 12, carried on Ukrainska Pravda and other media, said that police had arrested the journalists because of suspicions they had conducted surveillance alongside the two Ukrainians in custody.
“At the time of the arrests, it was not known that the suspects were a Ukrainian investigative journalist and a cameraman,” the statement said. “During questioning, one of the suspects confirmed that surveillance activities had taken place. However, the suspicion that they had acted as accomplices to the suspects already in custody could not be substantiated. Their release was therefore ordered.”
“The arrests were in no way connected with the professional activities of the two men and were warranted on the basis of the facts available at the time.”
Ukrainska Pravda said it believed the law enforcement officers exceeded their powers, adding that many questions remained unanswered about the incident, including around the use of force. It said the journalists were in Vienna on an assignment which involved tracking down the fugitive former Ukrainian prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko
Editor’s note: This story was updated on October 13, 2026 to add reported comments from the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office.