RIA Melitopol journalist Anastasia Hlukhovska has been Russia's prisoner for eight months

RIA Melitopol (RIA Pivden) journalist Anastasia Hlukhovska, who was detained by Russia together with the channel's administrators in August 2023, has been in detention for almost eight months; her whereabouts are unknown, announced the RIA Pivden (RIA Melitopol) chief editor Svitlana Zalizetska at the international Council of Europe conference on April 9 in Kyiv, IMI correspondent reports.

The Russians detained Anastasia and the administrators of the Telegram channels "RIA Melitopol" and "Melitopol is Ukraine" on August 20, 2023.

The journalist's name had not been revealed until now out of safety considerations, as requested by her mother.

To date, Zalizetska noted, the family's attempts to find Anastasia have yielded no result. The occupiers give out no information on the whereabouts of the Melitopol journalist.

RIA Melitopol and "Melitopol is Ukraine" administrators detained

On October 23, 2023, the Russian media released a news story about the detention of the RIA-Melitopol and "Melitopol is Ukraine" Telegram channel administrators, which happened two months prior. The administrators were charged with terrorism.

The Russians disclosed the names of the following detainees: Oleksandr Malyshev, Heorhiy Levchenko, Maksym Rupchov, Yana Suvorova, Mark Kaliush, Kostiantyn Zinovkin. RIA Melitopol journalist Anastasia Hlukhovska who continued to work in the temporarily occupied city, was recognized as one of the other detainees in the video.

All of them are charged under several articles of the Russian criminal code: public calls for terrorist attacks, treason, espionage. They face 12 to 20 years in prison.

In early May 2023, Melitopol journalist Iryna Levchenko and her husband Oleksandr were kidnapped in the temporarily occupied city (Zaporizhzhia oblast). Both have been in retirement for years. The occupiers detained the couple on the street, first keeping them together and then separating them. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

According to the IMI, as of April 10, at least 27 Ukrainian media workers are held prisoner by Russia.