Ukraine’s human rights and media organisations have issued a statement calling on Ukraine’s authorities and the international community to step up the pressure on Russia to release unlawfully detained Ukrainian journalists and protect freedom of speech in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories.
The statement was posted by the Human Rights Centre ZMINA and signed by the Institute of Mass Information.
It says that since the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, the Russian Federation has been driving out or shutting down independent media, blocking access to Ukrainian TV channels and social media, prosecuting journalists on false charges and saturating the information space with propaganda. Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the scale of repression has significantly increased and expanded to newly occupied territories.
Human rights organisations continue to document unlawful detention, searches, seizure of equipment, abductions, the use of physical violence, and prosecution on charges of “terrorism”, “high treason”, “dissemination of false information”, “discrediting the Russian army”, “extremism” or “espionage”.
No fewer than 26 Ukrainian civilians working in the media remain in Russian detention today, inlcuding 17 professional and citizen journalists from Crimea. Some of these media workers have been imprisoned for years and have been experiencing serious health problems, which are exacerbated by denial of proper treatment and inadequate conditions of detention. For example, citizen journalist Iryna Danylovych has lost hearing in one ear and suffered a microstroke in detention. Other imprisoned journalists have also reported health issues.
The human rights groups mentioned recent court rulings against journalists as well, such as the group of media workers from Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia oblast) that have been sentenced to long prison terms on fabricated charges.
The organisations called on Ukraine’s government to continue efforts to secure the release of journalists, ensure the effective investigation of crimes against journalists committed in Ukraine’s TOT of Ukraine, and strengthen financial and institutional support for independent media relocated from the temporarily occupied territories.
They called on the international community to increase political and diplomatic pressure on Russia, ensure access to detained journalists, strengthen international mechanisms for monitoring violations of freedom of expression in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, and to ensure that those responsible are held accountable.
The statement stresses that any inaction by the international community reinforces a climate of impunity and creates conditions for further repression against media workers worldwide.
The statement was signed by: Human Rights Centre ZMINA, NGO Crimean Process, NGO Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin, Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv, the Crimean Human Rights Group, the National Union of journalists of Ukraine, Human Rights House Crimea, and the Institute of Mass Information.
According to the Institute of Mass Information, no fewer than 26 Ukrainian civilians working in the media remain in Russian detention as of 4 May 2026. Russia has committed at least 937 crimes against journalists and the media in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion, with 15 media professionals dying while reporting. Russia has targeted media offices in Ukraine at least 72 times, affecting no fewer than 64 media outlets.
