Human rights advocate, UAF servicemember, and Hromadske Radio co-founder Maksym Butkevych shared his story of hearing a broadcast from his own radio station while in Russian jail, Hromadske Radio reported.
Butkevych said that one of inmates had managed to tune in a radio receiver at a site where prisoners were doing hard labour.
“Quite suddenly, I heard familiar sounds, station idents, the tune. And then a voice: it’s so-and-so o’clock Kyiv time, this is Hromadske Radio — followed by the host’s name. It was a moment of almost pure happiness. For me, it was a window opening onto another world,” Butkevych recalled.
He added that, even before this, on his birthday, a fellow inmate had relayed to him a radio snippet he’d heard in the prison, which made it clear to Butkevych that people back home remembered him and were fighting for his release.
Maksym Butkevych co-founded Hromadske Radio in 2013 and spent more than 10 years working in journalism and human rights advocacy. With the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, he enlisted in Ukraine’s Defence Forces.
“It was important for me to show what it’s like to be in a volunteer army at the start of a full-scale invasion — to be someone with anti-militarist convictions, with no military experience, but ultimately to realise that you are where you’re meant to be, doing what you’re meant to do,” he said.
Maksym Butkevych’s imprisonment
Maksym Butkevych was taken prisoner by Russian forces in June 2022 near Zolote and Hirske in Luhansk oblast, occupied shortly prior. Russian state media reported on his detention as early as 24 June, sharing a clip of him being interrogated.
On 10 March 2023, Russia’s Investigative Committee reported on the “sentences” against three previously convicted Ukrainian POWs handed down by occupation courts: Maksym Butkevych (13 years in prison), Viktor Pokhozei (8.5 years), and Vladyslav Shel (18.5 years). They were found guilty of “cruel treatment of civilians and using prohibited methods in an armed conflict” (Part 1, Article 356 of the Russian Criminal Code).
Maksym Butkevych came back to Ukraine on 18 October 2024 as part of a prisoner swap between the two countries. He was the second Ukrainian journalist to be released from Russian jail in 2024.