A Russian occupation court has rejected the appeal filed by unlawfully detained Melitopol journalist Iryna Levchenko, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison on “espionage” charges in September, Iryna’s sister, Olena, reported to RIA Pivden.
The journalist is currently detained in a pre-trial detention centre (SIZO) in Mariupol.
On 4 September 2026, the Russia-installed Zaporizhzhia Oblast Court sentenced Iryna Levchenko, a journalist from Melitopol unlawfully detained in 2023, to 15 years in prison, having found her guilty of “espionage”. Levchenko has also reported being subjected to torture along with other civilian prisoners in a “pit” in occupied Melitopol.
READ MORE
She has also said that Viktoria Roshchyna, another Ukrainian journalist who later died in Russian custody, was imprisoned along with her for a time in a secret Russian torture facility (known as the “pit”) in Melitopol.
Previously
Iryna Levchenko and her husband Oleksandr were kidnapped in temporarily occupied Melitopol (Zaporizhia oblast) in May 2023. This information was confirmed by IMI’s own sources in the city. Iryna and her husband have been retired for several years. The occupiers detained the couple on the street, first keeping them together and then separating them.
Oleksandr Levchenko was released in August 2024.
Iryna Levchenko has been a journalist since 1981. She worked for large-circulation newspapers, for the Melitopol district newspaper Novyi Den, was a correspondent for regional and national printed media.
Iryna Levchenko is on the Institute of Mass Information’s list of civilian journalists imprisoned by Russia.