The company Fire Point threatens Kyiv Independent with an SSU investigation for "treason"

The company Fire Point threatens Kyiv Independent with an SSU investigation for "treason"

Fire Point demands that Kyiv Independent retracts information about the NABU investigation into the company’s activities and promises to file a complaint with the SSU for aiding Russia.

The editor-in-chief of Kyiv Independent, Olha Rudenko, reports this.

"Yesterday, we received a letter from the head of the company, Yehor Skalyha, demanding a retraction of the article stating that NABU is investigating the company’s activities. According to our sources, this investigation includes, among other things, checking the possibility that the company overpriced drones supplied to the state, and exploring ties between the company and Tymur Mindich — a businessman close to the president," she wrote on Facebook.

"There are no reasons for a retraction given in the letter. The main argument presented is a letter from NABU, which in no way refutes the facts stated in our article," Rudenko claims.

"The letter acknowledges the existence of an investigation but does not specify whether Fire Point is involved in it, citing investigative secrecy. That’s all. There was no retraction," explains the site’s editor-in-chief.

"A public statement from NABU that ’there is no investigation into the Flamingo rocket’ is not a retraction, because no one wrote about a rocket investigation — and how can you even investigate a rocket? Are we making rockets so good that they become legal entities?" she adds.

"The head of Fire Point informed us, the editorial team, that he would file a complaint with the SSU accusing us of committing a crime under articles concerning treason and aiding the aggressor state. Because, in his assessment, our article is ’aimed by unknown orders’ and ’intended to disrupt Ukraine’s missile program,’" Rudenko notes.

"I consider this threat nothing more than an attempt to pressure the editorial team — not only to intimidate us but also other journalists who might be interested in the company’s activities. And, given who this company might be connected to and how these connections might influence the SSU’s willingness to start such an investigation, I am making this threat public," wrote the editor of Kyiv Independent.