Updated on 12 September to include the case of obstruction faced by Ukrinform journalists while trying to film the aftermath of a Russian strike at an outdoors centre in Kanivske village, Zaporizhzhia oblast.
The Institute of Mass Information experts recorded 6 freedom of speech violations in Ukraine in August 2025, according to the IMI’s monthly monitoring study Freedom of Speech Barometer.
IMI recorded four crimes against media and journalists committed by Russia in August. These included damage to media offices and cyber crimes.
Russia’s overnight combined arms strike on Kyiv on 28 August damaged the offices of Ukrainska Pravda and Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, and a Russian drone strike on Dnipropetrovsk oblast affected the office of Mezhyvskyi Merydian. No casualties were reported in either case.
Detector Media sustained one of the most intense DDoS attacks in their experience, which resulted in their website running with glitches. Detector Media chief editor Hala Sklyarevska believes they were being targeted by Russian actors due to the media outlet’s work debunking Russian propaganda.
IMI recorded two freedom of speech violations unrelated to Russia’s war on Ukraine. One was a case of political pressure on blogger Olena Mandziuk by MP Oleksiy Honcharenko. The official de-facto used the state enforcement system to influence a person with opposing views by initiating a police proceedings over the blogger’s social media post.
Another one was a case of obstruction faced by Ukrinform journalists in Zaporizhzhia: photojournalist Dmytro Smolyenko and reporter Olha Zvonaryova, who were threatened by the Zaporizhzhia Forestry Department chief Hryhoriy Cherneta and barred from filming the aftermath of the Russian strike on an outdoors centre in Kanivske village, Zaporizhzhia oblast. Following the incident, the police opened a case under Part 1 of Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Obstruction of legal reporting”).
Freedom of Speech Barometer for August 2025
IMI also recorded persecution of Krym.Realii journalist Oleksina Dorohan by Russia. A Russian-controlled court in Simferopol arrested her for two months in absentia on 23 June 2025; in August, she was added to the “List of Terrorists and Extremists”. The case was filed under Article 208 of the Russian Criminal Code: “Involvement in an illegal armed group,” which may incur a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. However, the real reason was her reporting, such as her investigations into the Crimeans who fought in Ukraine as part of the Russian army and were killed in action and her work on the database GRUZ 200.
This case is another instance of Russia’s systemic pressure on independent Ukrainian journalists exposing the truth about the war and occupation.
Read the full monitoring report below.
Russia’s crimes
Damage to media offices — 3
28.08.2025 The office of Ukrainska Pravda was damaged in the Russian mass combined strike on Kyiv overnight on 28 August, the news outlet reports.
The business centre where the office is located was affected by the shelling. No casualties were reported.
The Ukrainska Pravda team continues their work as usual.
2. RFE/RL office damaged in Russian strike on Kyiv
28.08.2025 The Kyiv office of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was affected in the Russian overnight strike on 28 August. The windows in some rooms were broken and some of the equipment was damaged. There were no casualties, RFE/RL reports.
Surveillance camera footage that has surfaced on social media shows that the explosions near the RFE/RL office were the result of direct hits by two missiles, which hit civilian buildings a short distance away from the Radio Liberty office.
“Even though the Radio Liberty office was damaged, fortunately, none of our staff were injured. Rest assured, our journalists will continue their vital work. Our thoughts are with the families of those killed and injured in these attacks, as well as with the Ukrainian rescuers,” said Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President Stephen Capus.
3. Mezhyvskyi Merydian office targeted in Russian drone strike
28.08.2025 Russian troops targeted the Mezhyvskyi Merydian office in Mezhova village (Dnipropetrovsk oblast) in a drone strike on 28 August, the news outlet reported in a Facebook post and on their website.
The Russian forces struck the office building with a Molniya UAV. The building also housed the humanitarian aid centre of the Novopavlivka village military administration.
“The office was hit. … The windows were broken. … The Russians don’t seem to like our news, but it’s okay: you’ll be watching them, reading them, so that everyone can see what you’re doing to us,” said chief editor Yevhen Khrypun.
The shared photos and videos show that the strike shattered the windows and the office is littered with glass shards.
The village is located on the border of the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk oblasts. According to the news outlet, Mezhova and practically all nearby villages remain without electricity, water supply, or stable mobile connection.
Yevhen Khrypun spoke to the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting about the impact of the attack, saying that the strike had broken all the windows and doors, blasted holes in the walls, filled the office with glass shards. Furniture, equipment, books, and newspaper binders had been damaged.
He was not at his workplace at the moment of the attack.
“However, the newspaper is not walls: it is the people who continue to work. There are not many of us. We are a denationalized district newspaper, now there are four people in the team including me. They have been relocated, and I am staying here and keep the locals informed about what is happening, as far as circumstances allow,” Yevhen Khrypun said.
He added that drone and cluster bomb strikes occurr throughout the Mezhova community.
Regarding deliveries, Yevhen Khrypun said that Ukrposhta had stopped operations and had not been delivering newspapers to the community in recent months.
“Now I take every issue to Mezhova by myself and distribute it through shops, humanitarian aid points, and other available places. We continue to work to the best of our ability,” said the chief editor.
The newspaper Mezhyvskyi Merydian has been in print since 1930 and celebrated its 95th anniversary this year. The current print run is about 2 thousand copies.
Cyber crimes — 1
04.08.2025 Detector Media reported a DDoS attack targeting their website on 4 August.
According to the team, the attack started at 15:30.
“Right now the site is working with glitches. The DM technicians continue to work on resolving the issue,” the message says.
The media outlet advises following them on social media: Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Viber.
In a comment to IMI, Detector Media chief editor Hala Sklyarevska said that the DM website was targeted regularly, but this attack was among the most intense.
“We are being attacked by several networks with dynamic IP addresses, with a high request intensity,” she said.
Hala Sklyarevska did not rule out that the attack might be perpetrated by Russian forces, since the media outlet debunks Russian propaganda.
“We are attacked on the regular, so we cannot associate this attack with any specific piece of reporting. But we constantly debunk Russian propaganda, and over the several years of the war we have received various threats specifically for our work in combating propaganda, so I assume that this intense attack is also related to this area of our activity. The previous one occurred immediately after the release of our investigation into Telegram channels that recruit Ukrainian teenagers for arson attacks,” the chief editor said.
As of the morning of 5 August, the attacks have ceased.
The freedom of speech situation in Ukraine not related to Russia’s war
Physical aggression — 1
Obstruction of legal reporting — 1
06.08.2025 Ukrinform correspondents in Zaporizhzhia (photojournalist Dmytro Smolyenko and reporter Olha Zvonaryova) were threatened by the Zaporizhzhia Forestry Department chief Hryhoriy Cherneta and barred from filming the aftermath of the Russian strike on an outdoors centre in Kanivske village, Zaporizhzhia oblast.
Dmytro Smolyenko reported this to Natalia Vyhovska, the regional representative of the Institute of Mass Information.
Smolyenko said that he and Olha Zvonaryova arrived at the outdoor centre hit by a Russian high-explosive aircraft bomb (FAB-500) at 8:20 a.m. on August 6 to film the aftermath of the war crime committed by the Russian troops targeting the civilian population.
“We had coordinated in advance with Anna Tkachenko, chief of communications at the Zaporizhzhia Oblast National Police. Moreover, reporters with Zaporizhzhia-based media were already working there without hindrance. However, arriving there, we could not enter the premises for a long time, as we were being obstructed by a man behaving aggressively. He did not introduce himself and, upon seeing the journalists, immediately started shouting and swearing obscenely. The man was categorically opposed to us driving closer to the site, stood in the middle of the road and did not let us pass,” said Smolyenko.
The man who was obstructing the journalists’ work asked if they had a filming permit.
“Olha Zvonaryova said that our trip had been approved by the police press service and showed the Ministry of Defense press ID. But even after that, the man continued to use obscene language and demand that we leave the location. He threatened to physically attack us, too,” the journalist said.
Smolyenko says they asked the man to introduce himself and he gave his name and position: Hrihoriy Cherneta, head of the Zaporizhzhia branch of the Zaporizhzhia Forestry Department of the state-owned company Forests of Ukraine.
“Our work on the ground involved filming and recording comments directly at the outdoor centre where the attack occurred, and we were also supposed to take several photos of the burning area of the forest. The State Emergency Service and the police were working there, and we were supposed to film them working, among other things. Cherneta was preventing us from doing our job all this time, provoking a conflict,” the photojournalist said.
In the end, the journalists managed to get to the centre and report from the scene. On August 7, Dmytro Smolyenko filed a statement with the police on obstruction of legal reporting.
The police have opened a criminal case under Part 1 of Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Obstruction of legal reporting”), as reported to an IMI representative by Anna Tkachenko, Zaporizhzhia Oblast Police chief of communications.
According to Tkachenko, the police received Dmytro Smolyenko’s statement on August 7. In it, the journalist reported that at about 8:20 a.m. on August 6, in Kanivske village, Zaporizhzhia district, at the entrance to the outdoors center affected by Russian bombs earlier, a citizen who claimed to be the head of the forestry department provoked a conflict and obstructed their filming, thereby violating the media worker’s right to perform legal journalistm.
The investigation is underway.
Russian troops dropped at least 4 FAB-500 bombs on an outdoor centre in Kanivske (Zaporizhzhia oblast) in the morning of August 6, 2025. Two people died on the spot; 13 others, including two children, were injured. The centre was damaged, with some bungaloos being destroyed, and some customers’ cars burning down.
Indirect pressure — 1
Political pressure — 1
15.08.2025 The National Police has opened a case against blogger Olena Mandziuk, who wrote in a recent Instagram post that her children “can kick someone’s *ass” for speaking Russian.
This was reported by MP Oleksiy Honcharenko, who had contacted the police about the matter, writes hromadske.
In response to Honcharenko’s parliamentary address, the Khmelnytskyi oblast police reported that the case had been filed under Part 1 of Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (willful actions inciting national, racial or religious enmity and hatred, humiliation of national honor and dignity).
Mandziuk may face a fine of 200 to 500 tax-free minimum incomes, restriction of liberty for up to five years, or up to three years of imprisonment with or without a ban on holding certain positions or engaging in certain activities for up to three years.
Olena Mandziuk called Honcharenko a “pro-Russian animal” in an Instagram post. She added that her husband has been fighting in the army for four years that and her children “perceive Russian-speaking people as a threat.”
“So tell me, who is being oppressed here? Whom does the state want to imprison, me, a Ukrainian who dreams of a free Ukrainian-speaking space? Do you want to take my children and put them in an orphanage because their dad is at war and their mom is too pro-Ukrainian? Why are homefront Ukrainians being persecuted for their hatred of everything Russian? Why do we have to suffer not just in the war, but also at home? Why does the state turn a blind eye to pro-Russian evil and punish those who fight against it?” Mandziuk wrote.
She also noted that she has a “wonderful lawyer,” adding that the case “will be closed before it even begins.”
On 14 July, Mandziuk wrote in a comment under her post that that her children “could kick other children’s *sses” for speaking Russian and she sees no problem with that.
Honcharenko expressed outrage over this on his social media, saying that if there is even one incident of her children attacking another child, he will personally take steps to deprive her of custody rights.
Honcharenko later submitted a parliamentary address to the police and the Commissioner’s Office.
Crimea — 1
12.08.2025 The Russian-installed Kyiv District Court of Simferopol has arrested Krym.Realii journalist Oleksina Dorohan for two months in absentia, reports the Crimean Tatar Resource Center (CTRC) in a Facebook post, citing Dorohan herself.
“In the meantime, it turns out that I have been arrested for two months in Crimea. The lawyer (a former prosecutor, by the way) is appealing something. No article listed, but they do prescribe a term. Not difficult to guess what one faces twenty years for,” Dorohan said.
The CTRC cites the Russian court as claiming that “considering the nature and degree of public threat of the incriminated offense, which may incur a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, O. V. Dorohan may evade preliminary investigation bodies or the court,” which necessitates an arrest. At the same time, the court found no grounds to choose a milder measure of restraint.
Oleksina Dorohan worked with prominent Crimean TV channels, was a correspondent for Ukraine’s central TV channels in Crimea. She has been working for Krym.Realii since 2015 and is the creator of the database project GRUZ 200, which identifies Crimeans who fought in the Russian army and died in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Oleksina Dorohan told Krym.Realii that she had learned about the prosecution against her in Russia on August 11. According to her, notices regarding the appeal against her arrest in absentia were sent to the apartment in Crimea where she used to live. This material was mailed out by a lawyer appointed by the Russian court.
Dorohan says that she had been unaware about the prosecution and no one had contacted her before.
The appeal by the state-appointed attorney says the court ruling arresting her in absentia for three months was passed on 23 June 2025.
The arrest warrant was issued by the Kyiv District Court of Simferopol judge Andrei Nikolayevich Dolgopolov.
The article which the pre-trial investigation is classified under and which the journalist is charged with was not specified, but the ruling does say that it “stipulates up to 20 years in prison.” The case is being investigated by the FSB officer N. A. Andreev.
The letter added that the appeal was to be tried by the Russian-installed Supreme Court of Crimea on 30 July 2025.
An analysis of case files on Russian judicial resources showed that the prosecution is filed under Article 208 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Organizing an illegal armed group or participating in it, as well as participating in an armed conflict or military operations for a purpose contrary to the interests of the Russian Federation”). According to these resources, the Russian Supreme Court of Crimea upheld the arrest.
It was reported that the Russian authorities have added the Krym.Realii journalist’s name to the List of Terrorists and Extremists under number 5621.
Oleksina Dorohan is a key contributor to Krym.Realii investigations about the deceased Russian soldiers from Crimea and the GRUZ 200 database.
The journalist left the occupied Crimea in August 2014, having officially renounced the Russian passport that the Russian authorities coerce Crimeans into getting.
Defending freedom of speech
The authorities’ response to violations of journalists’ rights — 1
12.08.2025 A Lviv oblast court sentenced a man to one year in prison for threatening a journalist with the media outlet Vybir – Pravozakhysnyk Lvivshchyny, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported in a Facebook post.
The man was convicted under the article “obstructing legal reporting by a journalist and threatening them with violence” (Part 2 of Article 171 and Part 1 of Article 345-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The prosecutors proved in court that the defendant (the brother of a patrol police officer) threatened the journalist while the latter was performing an editorial assignment in 2021. The journalist was gathering information on police compliance with the law while patrolling the Drohobych district. The convict demanded that he cease his work, openly threatening to beat and murder the journalist to intimidate him.
In addition to imprisonment, the court, based on the prosecution’s arguments, fined the defendant 3,400 UAH and recovered 55,000 UAH of material damage and 200,000 UAH of moral damage in favor of the victim.
Lawsuits by journalists — 1
27.08.2025 The Prydniprovskyi District Court of Cherkasy has recovered 10 thousand hryvnias from Andriy Kovalenko, the Metropolitan of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol, for VIKKA TV. The news outlet spent the money on lawyers’ fees as they defended themselves in the lawsuit filed by the metropolitan, VIKKA TV CEO Serhiy Kuzlyaev reported in a comment to the regional IMI representative, Elena Shchepak.
According to the ruling, the court received a motion from the TV channel’s representative, lawyer Valeriy Makeyev, on 30 June. Makeyev requested that Kovalenko pay off the 47,500 hryvnias that the channel had spent on professional legal assistance.
Kovalenko’s representative objected to the claim, stating that all evidence of the incurred court expenses should have been provided by the parties before the end of the trial.
In the end, the court satisfied part of Makeyev’s motion and ruled to recover 10 thousand hryvnias worth of legal fees from the plaintiff in the defendant’s favour.
In April 2025, Andriy Kovalenko (Luca), Metropolitan Bishop of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol, sued the Cherkasy-based TV channel VIKKA, demanding a retraction of allegedly untrue information that had been reported on the air of the program “Topical Talk” in December 2024. The metropolitan also insisted the channel pay him one hryvnia in compensation.
The lawsuit was triggered by a statement by the Cherkasy Mayor, Anatoliy Bondarenko, who had said while talking on the program that the metropolitan was working for the enemy.
In June, the Prydniprovskyi District Court dismissed the metropolitan’s lawsuit against the TV channel.
On May 1, 2024, the Security Service of Ukraine notified Metropolitan Luca of suspicion of inciting religion-based hatred. According to the investigation, he had publicly expressed contempt for parishioners of other denominations in conversations with his flock and during liturgies.
On December 11, 2022, the National Security and Defense Council imposed targeted sanctions against seven hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. These included Metropolitan Luca (Andriy Kovalenko) of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol (UOC MP).
