An employee of the Security Service of Ukraine could have instructed representatives of the TCC to serve a summons to a journalist of Slidstvo.Info, who was working on an investigation into the head of the SBU cybersecurity department, Ilya Vityuk. This is reported by the publication "Slidstvo.Info", reports UNN.
Details
According to the publication, on April 1, in a supermarket in the Obolon district of Kyiv, Slidstvo.info journalist Yevhen Shulhat was approached by employees of the Solomensky shopping center and tried to hand him a summons.
"I was surprised that they came up to me, addressed me by name and surname, and clearly knew me by sight," Shulhat said.
The journalist filmed the conversation with the military, which later allowed him to identify them and communicate with them. It is noted that representatives of the TCC arrived in another area and met the journalist at 21.15. During the conversation, the military personnel noted that Yevhen had recently turned 27 and had not come to the TCC to update his data.
"When the journalist started filming and asking questions about whether the situation was related to his work on an investigation into the head of the SBU's cybersecurity department, the soldiers left, saying they were recording the refusal of the summons," the publication writes.
The publication notes that Yevheniy worked on an investigation into the head of the SBU's cybersecurity department, Ilya Vityuk, which was published on April 4: "Wealthy Women and the Royal Real Estate of the SBU General".
"Since I was working on this story, I immediately suspected that I was stopped in the supermarket because of it," the journalist said.
The journalists note that in the video they received from the shopping center's surveillance cameras, at 21:08, the journalist enters the shopping center, and a few minutes later, two employees of the shopping center enter the supermarket, along with a civilian who was giving instructions to the employees of the shopping center.
While the journalist is in the supermarket, a man in civilian clothes walks by the cash registers and then quickly turns to the military. He actively gestures, pointing to the military in different directions and leaves the shopping center. In less than a minute, the military approached the journalist. From what we saw, we can conclude that this man is pointing the military to Yevhen Shulhat," the publication says.
The journalists managed to identify the representatives of the TCC, but they refused to answer questions about the events in the shopping center, saying that such questions were only authorized by the command.
"The soldiers did not agree to name the person who told them who should be served with the summons. We have sent a request with detailed questions about the incident to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Perhaps they will explain on what grounds this person in civilian clothes was giving instructions to the military. The journalists' sources helped us to understand who exactly was the man who was directing the TCC representatives. We were told that it could be Oleksiy Volodymyrovych Bilenko, a person close to Ilya Vityuk," the newspaper writes.
Bilenko works in the SBU's cybersecurity department, headed by Ilya Vityuk, a person involved in Yevhen Shulhat's investigation.
Recall
This is not the first scandal that the SBU has been involved in. In February, the Narodna Pravda YouTube channel posted a video of Bihus.Info team members allegedly using illegal substances.
The founder of the project, Denys Bihus, responded to the video, saying that the cameramen were not journalists, but cameramen, and assured that such actions would result in tough personnel changes.
Subsequently, the SBU began to establish the circumstances of the illegal wiretapping and video recording and searched the complex where the Bihus.Info team members were being monitored, seizing hard drives and video recordings.
Bihus.Info journalists showed the faces of those who were following their employees in a country complex. Investigators are convinced that they were being followed by SBU officers who should be dealing with the protection of our statehood, not searching for compromising information about independent media.