Zinkevych calls situation around Hospitallers dangerous precedent of attack on volunteers
Yana Zinkevych, a lawmaker from the European Solidarity faction, volunteer medic and founder of the Hospitallers Medical Volunteer Battalion, said during a speech in the Verkhovna Rada that the battalion is facing an information attack and called it a dangerous precedent of hybrid warfare against Ukraine.
"The situation around the Hospitallers is not just a social media discussion. This is a dangerous precedent of an attack on Ukraine's volunteers in the conditions of such a brutal war... I am not using this platform for personal purposes. My presence here is a politician's duty to protect trust in the volunteer movement, which is the foundation of our defense. On Twitter and other social networks, the discussion about our reporting was artificially steered toward contempt and baseless accusations with clear signs of coordination: thousands of bots pick up internal disputes, turning them into fuel for Russian propaganda," Zinkevych said during her speech.
She stressed that the Hospitallers Foundation operates strictly within the law. "We submit tax, statistical and financial reports in full... In recent days, our team in 72 hours processed and provided payment documents totaling UAH 22 million," the lawmaker said.
Zinkevych also explained that redacting certain data in published payment documents is to protect sensitive information. "Our counterparties are people and companies that supply the front in critical conditions. Disclosure of their details without consent is a direct threat to their security and disrupts future supplies. We choose people's safety over satisfying the curiosity of anonymous accounts," she said.
The lawmaker stressed that journalists have the right to ask questions, while calling on the media community to adhere to professional ethics: "A request for information should not begin with a public accusation."
"I am here to defend my honest reputation and the honor of the battalion, those people who are volunteers and not only do not receive financial benefits, but also invest their own. If we allow the reputation of units to be baselessly destroyed through emotional posts without fact-checking — we will lose the information war... We do everything according to the law. I want to thank every female and male Hospitaller who is now at the front evacuating the wounded," Zinkevych concluded.
As previously reported, journalist Olha Khudetska, who previously exposed abuses in fundraising for the treatment of Lviv resident Nazariy Husakov with spinal muscular atrophy, drew attention to the fact that the Hospitallers Medical Volunteer Battalion, created by servicewoman and lawmaker (European Solidarity faction) Yana Zinkevych and which collects charitable donations, is supported by a network of legal entities registered to relatives of one person, with two related legal entities also located in the United Kingdom, and expressed a desire to see the battalion's reporting on all fundraising. This post caused strong public resonance.
