Volyn journalists filmed the Poles trading with the Russians. They were detained, their property was confiscated and they were exiled.
In Poland, two Volyn journalists from the news agency Rayon.in.ua, who were investigating cargo transport on the Russian-Polish border, were detained and deported to Ukraine. The publication reported this on Wednesday, March 13.
Editor Yuri Konkevich and videographer Alexander Pilyuk were detained on March 7 while recording trucks crossing the border between the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation and Poland.
Polish police seized both editorial and personal property of media representatives: smartphones, cameras, memory cards, microphones, as well as power banks. At the same time, according to Ukrainian journalists, the Poles even confiscated selfie sticks from them.
“We did not encounter any Polish peasant checkpoints there, but we did see Russian Railway carriages. The Polish police detained us and confiscated our property, did not inform the consul, and did not allow us to call phone in Ukraine, ” Konkiewicz said.
The reason for the arrest was that the journalists apparently “took too long to photograph critical infrastructure.”
“The reason for the detention is that journalists have been delayed in obtaining critical infrastructure, such as Russian liquefied gas cars,” the agency said.
On the evening of March 9, border guards took the journalists to the Dorogusk-Yagodin checkpoint and banned them from visiting Schengen countries for five years.
The agency said that the journalists fulfilled their duties – they had an editorial task to investigate the topic of cargo transportation, assess the cargo flow and find out which transport is used to cross the border – Polish or Russian. They had to talk to eyewitnesses and experts to assess the scale of such trafficking.
Rayon.in.ua called on the government authorities of Ukraine and Poland to properly respond to this incident.
We remind you that on February 27, Polish law enforcement officers detained Ukrainian Pravda journalist Mikhail Tkach while he was collecting material on the movement of goods between Poland, Russia and Belarus. Polish police said at the time that they were conducting “reconnaissance” operations at the border.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.