The Poles detained the journalist Tkach at the border near Belarus: he filmed about trade between Poland and the Russian Federation

The Poles detained the journalist at the border near Belarus. Photo: Mykhailo Tkach, UP

Polish law enforcement officers detained Mykhailo Tkach, a journalist of «Ukrainian Pravda» along with a cameraman, near the Belarusian border, when they were filming a material about the transit of products between Poland and Russia and Belarus.

The filmed materials of the Poles were partially removed, Mykhailo Tkach said.

The UP team was indignant that the situation could be resolved only after publicity and the intervention of the Embassy of Ukraine in Poland. UP thanked the ambassador and consul for their quick response and concern.

«Near the border between Poland and Belarus, Polish policemen approached us and showed us a badge. We showed our documents and journalist's credentials. They began to grab our cameras, search them... Then they brought us to the commandant's office. About 10 people began to search our car, us, threw our things on the hood, took all the memory cards from the cameras, took away all the phones, documents. During the interrogation at the commandant's office, I said that we were journalists and said that we were filming how Poland trades with Russia through Belarus and how Poland trades with Belarus, how agricultural products go from Russia and Belarus to Poland,» said Mykhailo Tkach.

According to him, it was clear that the representatives of the Polish special service were frightened. They began to ask who else knows about it, whether the Ukrainian authorities, the Ukrainian government, know about it. They asked who the journalists' sources were, how they found out about it, how long they have been working on this topic, the journalist added.

As a result, Mykhailo Tkach and the cameraman were kept in the commandant's office for at least 4 hours and only then released after permission «from above». All this time, journalists were not allowed to contact anyone, the editorial office claims. They added that in the Polish commandant's office Ukrainian journalists were interrogated not only by the police, but also by representatives of the special service.

After the memory cards were returned to the journalists, it became known that some of the filmed materials had been deleted. Also, during the search, the policemen damaged the battery charger and communicated exclusively in Polish. In the commandant's office itself, the representatives of the special service spoke to the Ukrainians in English.

In addition, the Ukrainians were asked whether they would tell publicly that they were detained. Currently, UP journalists are communicating with lawyers.

The Poles detained the journalist at the border near Belarus. Photo: Mykhailo Tkach, UP

The Poles detained the journalist at the border near Belarus. Photo: Mykhailo Tkach, UP

The Poles detained the journalist at the border near Belarus. Photo: Mykhailo Tkach, UP

According to Mykhailo Tkach, at a time when Polish farmers are blocking the Ukrainian-Polish border, the UP team decided to check what is happening on the Polish-Belarusian border.

Editor-in-chief Sevhil Musaeva also commented on the situation with the UP journalist.

«We are outraged by this situation, which was normalized only after publicity and with the support of the Embassy of Ukraine in Poland. The UP team thanks the ambassador and consul for their quick response and concern,» she said.

Blocking of Ukrainian products on the Polish border

We will remind that the chief of staff of the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Jan Grabec, said that Poland and Ukraine are far from an agreement on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products blocked at the border by protesting Polish farmers.

On Tuesday, February 20, Polish protesters at the «Medyka — Shehyny» checkpoint blocked the railway and spilled grain from a freight car onto the track.

Before that, on February 11, in front of the checkpoint «Yahodyn — Dorohusk», where the movement of trucks has been blocked for the third day, Polish farmers dumped part of the grain from three Ukrainian trucks.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine condemned the deliberate destruction of Ukrainian grain by Polish protesters on the Ukrainian-Polish border.

On February 13, it became known that law enforcement officers in Poland opened a case against protesting farmers who spilled Ukrainian grain on the ground.