Rally in support of detained journalist Dmytro Khyliuk takes place in Kyiv

A rally in support of UNIAN journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, who has been in Russian custody since March 3, 2022, took place in Kyiv on March 2, reports UNIAN.

The event was held as part of the campaign “Don’t be Silent. Captivity Kills” by the Association of Azovstal Defenders' Families.

The rally was held under the motto #FREEKHYLIUK.

Rally in support of the detained UNIAN correspondent Dmytro Khyliuk, Kyiv, March 2, 2025. Photo by Stas Kozliuk

Rally in support of the detained UNIAN correspondent Dmytro Khyliuk, Kyiv, March 2, 2025. Photo by Stas Kozliuk

Rally in support of the detained UNIAN correspondent Dmytro Khyliuk, Kyiv, March 2, 2025. Photo by Stas Kozliuk

Rally in support of the detained UNIAN correspondent Dmytro Khyliuk, Kyiv, March 2, 2025. Photo by Stas Kozliuk

Rally in support of the detained UNIAN correspondent Dmytro Khyliuk, Kyiv, March 2, 2025. Photo by Stas Kozliuk

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, UNIAN journalist abducted by Russian soldiers in March 2022, is possibly in one of the prisons in the Vladimir region of Russia.

The Russian Ministry of Defense does not explicitly say that the UNIAN journalist 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 the whereabouts of UNIAN correspondent Dmytro Khyliuk, who was kidnapped by the Russian troops.