Journalist Ostap Yarysh was the first to highlight this controversial cooperation. In a post on social media platform X, he reminded readers that the Akhmat unit has been linked to torture, civilian executions, looting, and participation in Russia’s brutal filtration operations. He also noted their role in disseminating Kremlin propaganda.Excuse me??? I don’t even know where to start. Akhmat is infamous for its war crimes — including torture, executions of civilians, looting, and participation in filtration operations. On top of that, they’ve been heavily used as propaganda tools by the Kremlin. What is this? pic.twitter.com/jl9HqlXHgq— Ostap Yarysh (@OstapYarysh) July 12, 2025 Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi soon retweeted Yarysh’s post, reposting the message and criticizing The New York Times for cooperating with Russian war criminals.“This isn’t balance or ‘the other side of the story.’ This is simply letting Russian propaganda mislead the audience. Sad to see Duranty-level manipulation return to NYT,” he said.Note: Walter Duranty, a New York Times correspondent in the 1930s, is infamous for whitewashing Stalin’s regime and denying the Holodomor — the Soviet-orchestrated famine that killed millions of Ukrainians.