Journalists with at least five Ukrainian media outlets have been the targets of physical or online attacks because of their work in the past two weeks. They include the investigative outlet Slidstvo.info, which has been subjected to an online smear campaign, while one of its reporting crews was physically assaulted in the field. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warns of a troubling trend and calls for those responsible to be identified and brought to justice.
“This campaign is aimed at damaging both my reputation and that of Slidstvo.info ,” says Anna Babinets, co-founder and director of Slidstvo.info, one of Ukraine’s leading investigative media organisations, known for reporting on corruption and war crimes.
On the evening of 28 May, the outlet’s social media team identified at least six “almost identical” articles published nearly simultaneously by national media outlets such as the Unian news agency and the website Glavred. These articles reported accusations posted earlier that day on Facebook by Mykhailo Shnaider, a Kyiv-based man who describes himself on social media as a “blogger, political expert and lawyer.” He accused Anna Babinets of having conflicts of interest in a Ukrainian journalism competition. The independent outlet Texty.org.ua described Mykhailo Shnaider as a “pseudo-expert” with alleged links to the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk.
Anna Babinets sees all the hallmarks of a coordinated campaign. “None of these media outlets, despite being fairly well known in Ukraine, contacted me for comment,” she told RSF. At this stage, the supposed perpetrators and sponsors remain unknown. “We regularly publish investigations that upset powerful interests. I therefore cannot link this attack to any specific case,” she added, noting that she does not intend to file a complaint.
In a comment to the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), a Ukrainian media watchdog and RSF partner, Slidstvo.info editor-in-chief Nastia Stanko suggested that the campaign could be connected to an investigation published a few days earlier about a close associate of Viktor Medvedchuk.
The smears came nine days after a physical attack on Slidstvo.info personnel. On 19 May, two of the outlet’s journalists were assaulted while reporting inside municipal council offices in the Chernihiv region, north of Kyiv. A man identifying himself as an “independent worker” threw their camera to the ground and prevented them from filming.
“The smear campaign against Slidstvo.info and the assault on one of its reporting teams are deeply concerning. They are taking place in a context in which other threats and online intimidation targeting Ukrainian journalists have been documented in a short period of time. Reporters must be able to investigate and publish their findings without facing pressure or coordinated smear campaigns. Those responsible must be held accountable.
Growing number of attacks
The case of Slidstvo.info is part of a broader pattern of recent attacks against Ukrainian journalists. On 26 May, Valeria Pavlenko, a journalist with the independent outlet Texty.org.ua, received online threats following the publication of an investigation into immigration-related disinformation on TikTok. Inna Lysak, a journalist with Suspilne Dnipro, the local branch of Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne, reported a wave of hateful messages and social media attacks after the broadcast on 27 May of an interview related to the murder case of Iryna Farion, a Ukrainian nationalist politician assassinated in 2024.
A municipal councillor in western Ukraine’s Volyn region grabbed and smashed the telephone of Natalka Koval, a journalist with the local investigative outlet Syla Pravdy, on 28 May. Finally, Yevheniya Bykova, a journalist with the independent outlet Pershy Kryvyi Rih, reported online threats in late May following the publication of articles on various issues including rising water prices.
Ukraine ranks 55th in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index.
