Russia holds at least 30 Ukrainian civilian journalists hostage

Illustration by the Institute of Mass Infrormation

At least 30 civilian Ukrainian media workers are illegally held in Russian custody, according to the monitoring study of Russia's crimes against journalists and the media by the Institute of Mass Information (IMI).

Some of the journalists on this list have been in Russian detention since 2016. Four of the hostages are women. Many were detained by Russian forces after the start of the full-scale invasion.

Ukraine managed to release four media workers from Russian custody as part of an prisoner swap in 2024: one civilian (Nariman Celal) and three service members (Maksym Butkevych, Oleksandr Hudilin, Roman Borshch).

According to the IMI, a total of at least 112 Ukrainian and foreign journalists have been detained or taken hostage by Russian and pro-Russian forces since in 2014. Many of them are still in prison. Russia has charged or is charging many media workers with involvement in terrorist organizations, accusing them of terrorism or spying for Ukraine. Many of them have been tortured, abused, and beaten.

Over the third year of the full-scale invasion, the IMI recorded five cases of media workers being kidnapped. Namely, the RIA Melitopol journalist Anastasia Hlukhovska and the Telegram channel administrators from occupied Melitopol, Vladyslav Hershon and Yevhen Ilchenko, are still held hostage by Russia. In Kakhovka, Russian forces kidnapped the local journalist Zhanna Kiselyova, who was later released. The Russians also detained and then released Luhansk oblast journalist Volodymyr Martynov.

The Institute of Mass Information (IMI) is a Ukrainian non-governmental media organization that has been operating since 1996. The IMI defends the rights of journalists, analyzes the media field and covers media-related events, fights propaganda and disinformation and has been providing media outlets with safety gear for trips to the combat zone since the start of the Russo–Ukrainian war in 2014.

The IMI carries out Ukraine's only freedom of speech monitoring and keeps a list of high quality and sustainable online media outlets, documents Russia's crimes against the media committed in the course of the war on Ukraine. The IMI has representatives in 20 oblasts of Ukraine and a network of "Mediabaza" hubs to provide journalists with continuous support. The IMI's partners include Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House; the organization is a member of the International Organization for the Protection of Freedom of Expression (IFEX).