The camera was rolling when chaos erupted. It was January 21, 2024, and an independent Ukrainian journalist named Ostap Stakhiv was livestreaming a call with Vasyl Pleskach, a man claiming he was being illegally detained by Ukraine’s infamous military conscription unit, the TCC. The agency has been accused of kidnapping men from the street and forcing them to the front lines. Those who resist have sometimes been tortured—and in several well-documented cases—killed.
In the middle of the interview, Stakhiv called the police to see if they would free Pleskach from the clutches of the TCC. Just then, with the police still on the line, a burly figure entered Vasyl’s frame, walked over to Pleskach, and struck him hard in the face. His phone tumbled to the ground, landing sideways, but still recording. “They’re beating him right now,” Stakhiv told the police, as Vasyl’s picture went haywire. “People are watching it live. They’re beating him as we speak. Go to my YouTube channel and see it for yourself.” Off-screen, Pleskach’s screams were audible for another minute before the line was disconnected.
None of Ukraine’s media outlets covered the beating, but about a month later, a Ukrainian media outlet, Babel, ran an article about Stakhiv. Its headline? “Ostap Stakhiv—a Failed Politician and Antivaxxer—Created a Vast Anti-Conscription Network.” It accused the journalist of obstructing Ukraine’s mobilization efforts, pushing Kremlin narratives, and undermining trust in the military. (Babel did not respond to a request for an interview from The Free Press.)
Other Ukrainian outlets, including Detector Media and Bihus Info, chimed in with similar stories—some even containing identical phrasing. “Whole paragraphs were copied word for word,” Jean Novoseltsev, another independent journalist in Ukraine, told The Free Press. “You can tell they were sent the same memo.” (Detector Media and Bithus Info did not respond to an email requesting an interview.)
By the fall, Ukraine’s security agency (SBU) had arrested Stakhiv, holding him without bail for 60 days. Most of the media framed the charges as exposing a “traitor” who had “disclosed Ukrainian military positions.”
If you’re assuming that Babel, Detector Media, and Bihus Info are news organizations controlled by the Ukrainian government, think again.