RSF tracks five Melitopol journalists abducted and detained by Russia

The international human rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has tracked the location of five Ukrainian journalists from Melitopol (Zaporizhia oblast) – Heorhiy Levchenko, Yana Suvorova, Vladyslav Hershon, Anastasia Hlukhovska, and Yevhen Ilchenko – who were abducted and detained by Russia, RSF reports.

The organization writes that on August 20, 2023, at least four journalists and news content creators were detained. In October 2023, their arrest was confirmed by Russian propaganda videos in which the journalists were forced to make false confessions – yet no information on their fate or whereabouts has been released since, RSF says.

Photo edit by Reporters Without Borders

"Russia is holding these media workers illegally, moving them from prison to prison in conditions that are much closer to enforced disappearance than legitimate detention," RSF stresses.

The watchdog investigated and tracked their movement.

"By persecuting journalists and spreading propaganda, Russia is exporting the predatory policies on information that it uses at home to the occupied territories of Ukraine. Many citizens of Melitopol have fallen victim to the Russian hunt for journalists. RSF will continue documenting their captivity – which constitutes a war crime – and campaigning for their release," says Arnaud Froger, Head of RSF's Investigations Desk.

Heorhiy Levchenko's abduction

Accroding to RSF, the first journalist arrested during the August 2023 roundup was Georgy Levchenko, administrator of the Telegram channel Ria-Melitopol, a local media outlet with over 80,000 subscribers. He was taken prisoner before sunrise, around 4 a.m., according to footage of the arrest.

RSF reports that the Russian forces filmed the arrest and released it two months later and broadcast on Channel One Russia. Under incredible stress, the journalist appears apologetic and frightened in his cell. The organization supposes that he was likely still in Melitopol when the video was filmed. In a press release dated 27 October 2023, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) accused Levchenko of giving information about the Russian military to the Ukrainian intelligence services.

Then, RSF writes, he was possibly transferred to the pre-trial detention centre in Mariupol. Several sources have told RSF this, but RSF has not yet been able to confirm Levchenko’s exact whereabouts.

Yana Suvorova and Vladyslav Hershon's abduction

However, RSF found two content creators for the Telegram channel “Melitopol is Ukraine” in the Mariupol detention centre: Yana Suvorova, the channel's administrator, and her colleague Vladyslav Hershon. Both were also arrested in the early hours of 20 August 2023 and filmed for a Russian television report.

"Like Levchenko, Suvorova and Gershon were arrested, interrogated, and forced to give a confession that was broadcast on Channel One Russia," writes RSF.

In an FSB document seen by RSF, the two journalists are accused of having “intended to take part in sabotage and terrorist operations” alongside Ukrainian military intelligence agents in the Zaporizhia region of Ukraine. The document does not provide any concrete evidence for these accusations.

According to RSF’s information, the journalists were transferred to multiple detention sites – some of which were improvised, as civilian infrastructure in conquered areas is used to hold Russian prisoners – before arriving in Mariupol. They were held alongside Russian prisoners who were repeat offenders and found themselves in cells so overcrowded that some prisoners had to sleep standing up.

Anastasia Hlukhovska's abduction

Ria-Melitopol journalist Anastasia Hlukhovska had chosen to put her activities on hold since the invasion. However, she too was arrested during the roundup on 20 August 2023. She was first held in Melitopol, in a DIY boutique turned into a makeshift prison, before being transferred to the pre-trial detention centre in Priazovske, a village 30 km away. Hloukhovska has been accused of “terrorism.” According to RSF’s information, she is currently held in Rostov, an administrative region in southwestern Russia.

Yevhen Ilchenko's abduction

While investigating the disappearance of these Melitopol journalists, RSF discovered the case of Yevhen Ilchenko, who launched his own Telegram channel to report on the Russian occupation of his city. Essentially, Ilchenko was enslaved after his abduction. RSF’s investigation discovered that his jailors forced him to dig trenches.

No less than 30 Ukrainian journalists are currently detained in Russia, including Heorhiy Levchenko, Yana Suvorova, Vladyslav Hershon, Anastasia Hlukhovska and Yevhen Ilchenko.