Human Rights Commissioner shares Russia's replies to Ukraine's inquiries about Dmytro Khyliuk

Dmytro Khyliuk. Photo by the Media Initiative for Human Rights

Russia claims that the health of the UNIAN journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, who is in unlawful Russian detention, is “satisfactory”, reported Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, in response to a question by UNIAN during a briefing.

When asked for updates on Khyliuk’s health and whereabouts, the Commissioner noted that “the situation has not changed.”

“Dmytro Khyliuk – he has been confirmed by the International Committee of the Red Cross to be in Russian custody. The Russian side says his condition is satisfactory. Although we understand that this may be completely inaccurate. And his location has not changed since our last reports,” he said.

Lubinets reported that the Ukrainian side has repeatedly raised the issue of bringing Khyliuk’s home, including through intermediaries.

“Bringing journalists back is a separate issue. There is a special list consisting of journalists unlawfully detained by the Russian occupation authorities,” the Commissioner said.

When asked whether the Russians had provided any more details regarding Khyliuk’s supposedly satisfactory health, as previously there have been reports that the journalist weighed under 45 kilograms, Lubinets replied that the Russians “are not providing any details.”

“Despite us explicitly stating in our appeals that we were requesting information about his health, whether he had sought medical assistance, whether he had been provided with such assistance. That is, these were specific questions to which we wanted to receive specific answers. The Russian side's position that we always hear is 'condition satisfactory,' that’s all,” said Dmytro Lubinets.

The detention of UNIAN journalist Dmytro Khyliuk

UNIAN journalist Dmytro Khyliuk has been in Russian captivity since March 2022 as a civilian hostage. Such prisoners should be released separately from POW swaps, but the Russians are not doing this.

In May 2023, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said that he was personally monitoring the issue UNIAN journalist Dmytro Khyliuk's release from Russian captivity.

The Prosecutor General's Office has opened a case regarding the abduction of civilians on the territory of the Dymer hromada. The investigation considers journalist Dmytro Khylyuk and his father victims. The case was opened under Part 1 of Art. 438 of the Criminal Code (violation of the laws and customs of war).

Russian soldiers kidnapped Dmytro Khyliuk on February 26, 2022, in the garden of his own house in Kozarovychi. He was first kept in the occupied Dymer, and then taken to a prison in Russia.

On July 13, RSF reported that Dmytro Khyliuk is possibly in one of the prisons in the Vladimir region of Russia.

The Russian Ministry of Defense does not explicitly say that Dmytro Khyliuk is being kept in detention as a prisoner of war, but cites the Third Geneva Convention, which specifically concerns POW treatment, in response to his father's request.

On July 9, 2024 the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said that Ukraine had unofficial data on Dmytro Khyliuk's whereabouts.

According to the IMI, at least 30 Ukrainian civilians working in the media and one media professional turned combatant are in Russian detention as of now.