Melitopol-based journalist Iryna Levchenko (Zaporizhzhia oblast), who was detained by Russian forces in May 2023, has been moved from Russia’s Krasnodar to a prison in temporarily occupied Donetsk, RIA Pivden editor Svitlana Zalizetska reported to Natalia Vyhovska, IMI’s representative in Zaporizhzhia oblast.
Zalizetska said that the news had come from the journalist’s sister, Olena Rudenko.
“We all expected that she’d be moved from Krasnodar to Rostov-on-Don for trial. But it was not the case. They moved her at night, just like last time. At midnight they told her to get her things and head out of the cell,” Zalizetska said.
She added that the journalist’s health has deteriorated: “According to her letter to her sister, she has been suffering from toothache and hair loss.”
Zalizetska says that despite unlawfully keeping Iryna Levchenko in detention for over two years, Russia is yet to bring any official charges against her.
It was reported in June 2026 that Iryna Levchenko had been moved from the pre-trial detention center in Simferopol to a prison in Krasnodar (Russia).
Previously
Local journalist 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.
Iryna was later moved to pre-trial detention No. 1 in Donetsk.
As per RIA Pivden, Oleksandr Levchenko was released in August 2024. He had been imprisoned in occupied Melitopol the entire time. Upon release he was issued a document stating that he had served 21 day of administrative arrest for “curfew breach”. He was not given back the passport, credit cards, and money confiscared during search. After the detention, he only saw his wife once during a prison walk, but they were not allowed to talk.
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.
