​​UP's position on enlistment of Ekonomichna Pravda's editor-in-chief

Dmytro Dienkov, editor-in-chief of Ekonomichna Pravda, is joining the Armed Forces of Ukraine after being held by staff at a military enlistment office for almost a day. [Ekonomichna Pravda is a business news platform within Ukrainska Pravda’s holding company – ed.]

Let me start by saying that some journalists of Ukrainska Pravda are serving in the army – most of them have enlisted voluntarily, and a few have received call-up papers and joined the Defence Forces.

Eldar Sarakhman joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine voluntarily and has been serving for two years.

Sonia Lukashova, who is 25 and could have avoided joining the army altogether, also enlisted in the army voluntarily. There are other colleagues who are also fighting, but they have not yet spoken about it publicly.

We care because our country is fighting for survival. Over the past two years, together with our readers, we have raised more than UAH 100 million (US$2.4 million) for the needs of the Armed Forces.

Dmytro has already discussed the possibility of joining the army; he has been preparing for this for the past few weeks. We decided that he would do that after the banking forum at the end of June, as this is an important event for us, and it is his area of responsibility and expertise.

Like many other Ukrainians, Dmytro updated his data in  the Ukrainian MoD's application for draftees, reservists and those liable for military service, Reserve+ on the very first day after the app was launched. Then, Operational Command Pivden’s (South) Facebook page posted that "the said citizen has not updated his credentials for a long time". This, to put it mildly, is not true.

Dmytro was travelling to Odesa Oblast to visit his parents who live there. He was detained by border guards at a transit area. The fact is that to get to the village where Dmytro comes from, you need to drive through a part of the road that runs through the Moldovan border zone, there is no other way.

All we know so far is that he was detained by border guards. Subsequently, they handed our colleague over to the military enlistment office, although the centre is neither a judicial nor an investigative body.

As we found out later, Dmytro's phone and laptop were taken away from him.

Dmytro has not been in touch since Sunday evening. And this, of course, was a great stress for everyone – his parents, who were waiting for their son, his wife and colleagues.

Just imagine that your editor doesn't get in touch for several hours without warning. What would you think, and how would you act in such a situation?

Given the history of our publication, we are very sensitive to such situations. I can't imagine the state of mind of his parents and wife.

We could not find out where Dmytro was and that he had been held by the staff of the military enlistment office until his parents filed a missing persons report with the police.

This should not happen.

We decided to go public and tell our audience about this because it is an offence to deprive a person of the opportunity to contact their family and warn them. We have done this before in similar cases.

My personal opinion is that this is an absolutely shameful practice that must stop immediately. It further frightens people and destroys trust and respect for the military enlistment offices and the state in general. Such cases definitely do not help motivate people to defend the state and this plays into the hands of the enemy.

Dmytro Dienkov is a well-known editor, journalist and media personality, so his story has gained a lot of publicity. Most people who find themselves in similar situations are left face-to-face with similar attitudes towards themselves and their loved ones.

Dmytro will soon pass on his work to his colleagues and join the defence forces.

I would also like to note that he has never stood aside from helping the Armed Forces. Over the past two years, he and his colleagues have delivered more than 300 vehicles to our military. He has also participated in many joint fundraising projects.

Our Dmytro is a very cool and decent person. Every day, I am glad that in 2015, he became the head of the editorial office of Ekonomichna Pravda, accepted this challenge, and made it the best business publication in the country.

Dmytro remains part of our family and will faithfully fulfil his duty as a citizen because our country is under attack from Russia.

I have no doubt that he will do so with dignity.

Sevğil Musaieva, Editor-in-Chief of Ukrainska Pravda