Olena Mudra - attack 02.06.2025

On June 7, 2025, freelance journalist Olena Mudra from Zakarpattia reported a large-scale online attack linked to her professional work — in particular, her reporting on the preservation of high-mountain areas in the Ukrainian Carpathians threatened by wind power development projects led by company “Vitroparky.”

“A large-scale smear campaign was launched against me as a journalist covering efforts to protect the highlands of the Ukrainian Carpathians. Various anonymous ‘dump sites’ have been publishing fabricated stories — including false claims about my income and my family,” Mudra wrote on her Facebook page.

In particular, she referred to an article titled “Zakarpattia Online — a Media Outlet Serving the Aggressor?” published on From.ua on June 2, 2025, as well as another piece titled “Focus on Zakarpattia: How a Pro-Kremlin Conglomerate Is Blocking Wind Energy Development” published on Bagnet on June 7, 2025.

Both articles falsely accuse the online media outlet “Zakarpattia Online,” for which Olena Mudra regularly produces investigative reports, of alleged ties to Russia. The authors also claim that the journalist and her like-minded colleagues, who advocate for the protection of the Carpathian ecosystem, are supposedly “blocking the development of wind energy” in the region.

The article on From.ua also mentions the journalist’s family. Some of the claims are based on speculation, such as the following passage, which suggests that her son Maksym allegedly left the country “possibly to his grandmother in Russia”:

“Concerns have been raised about Mudra’s ties to Russia. Her mother lives there, and she herself visited the Russian Federation multiple times after 2014. Public information indicates that her son, Maksym, graduated from a military academy in Ukraine and later went abroad — possibly to his grandmother in Russia.”

In a comment to “Women in Media,” Olena Mudra clarified that her son did graduate from a military lyceum in Ukraine and left the country to pursue studies abroad even before the full-scale invasion began — but not to Russia, as falsely claimed, but to a European country. Her mother is also currently living abroad — and likewise, not in the Russian Federation.

The articles also mention that formal complaints have been submitted to the National Police, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), demanding an investigation into the Zakarpattia Online platform for alleged links to Russia. Mudra interprets these actions as a form of pressure targeting her and her colleagues.