On 6 April 2024, Ukrainian investigative outlet Slidstvo.Info reported that one of its journalists, Yevheny Shulhat, had recently been targeted in what appeared to be an intimidation attempt by authorities. Several days earlier, military recruitment officials approached Shulhat at a mall near his home in Kyiv, attempting to hand him a summons notice which could have led to the journalist’s drafting into the Ukrainian army.
While men in Shulhat’s age category can be legally drafted according to Ukraine’s martial law regulations, the timing and and context of the incident seemed to indicate this was not a regular operation as prescribed by Ukrainian legislation.
At the time, Shulhat was preparing an investigation into the head of the cybersecurity department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ilia Vitiuk. CCTV cameras appeared to show that Oleksiy Bilenko, an aide to Vitiuk, was present at the mall before Shulhat’s arrival, where he seemed to be coordinating the activities of the military personnel who attempted to hand Shulhat the summons notice.
Soon after the revelations by Slidstvo.Info, Vitiuk was dismissed from his functions and reportedly dispatched to the front-line, while the Prosecutor-General’s Office opened an investigation into his activities.
UPDATE: On 2 September 2024, Ukrainian online media outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported that the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office provided a reply to their inquiry on the investigation into the intimidation of Shulhat: according to the reply, no accusations had yet been formulated and authorities were continuing the investigation.