The Russian-installed court of Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia oblast) on sentenced Heorhiy Levchenko, the administrator of the Telegram channel RIA Melitopol who was detained by Russian forces back in 2023, to 16 years in a high security prison on 2 September.
The Russian-installed “Zaporizhzhia Region Court” posted a report on the ruling on their website on 2 September, according to Natalia Vyhovska, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Zaporizhzhia oblast.
The Russian court found Heorhiy guilty of high treason and online calls for extremism.
Russia claims that Levchenko is guilty of running a news Telegram channel after February 2022 and “remaining in the city and continuing his work” after part of Zaporizhzhia oblast was occupied. The Russian forces have remarked that that Levchenko “had a negative opinion of the SMO (Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine — Ed.), representatives of the Russian state authorities in the region, and the foreign policy pursued by them,” and “decided to use the Telegram channel for anti-Russian and pro-Ukrainian propaganda, as well as to share data on the locations of Russian Armed Forces units in Zaporizhzhia oblast with the Ukrainian special services.”
The court ruling states that Levchenko “ran a network of ‘correspondents’ in 2023 who sent him material containing calls for terrorism and violence against servicemen and representatives of the Russian authorities in Zaporizhzhia oblast, which he then posted on the Telegram channel.”
The occupiers also accused him sharing data on the locations of Russian army units with “Ukrainian special services,” which “were later used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to aim missile and bomb strikes.”
Heorhiy was found guilty under articles that only Russian citizens can be charged with. The court sentenced him to 16 years in prison, with a one-year ban on work related to website administration and a year of restriction of freedom.
Heorhiy Levchenko is on the Institute of Mass Information’s list of 26 civilians working in journalistm who were illegally detained by Russia.
Previously
In August 2023, Russian forces hacked the Telegram channel of the Ukrainian news outlet RIA Melitopol, which continuted to operate even after the occupation of Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia oblast), and the Telegram channel Melitopol Is Ukraine. They later raided Melitopol, detaining the administrators of the two Telegram channels: Oleksandr Malyshev, Heorhiy Levchenko, Maksym Rupchov, Yana Suvorova, Mark Kaliush, Kostyantyn Zynovkin. RIA Melitopol journalist Anastasia Hlukhovska, who contributed to the website before the full-scale invasion, was also detained.
In October 2023, a video of their detention was released on Russia’s central propaganda outlets and Telegram channels. The news story alleged that “three large agent groups controlled by Ukrainian security services” had been detained.
The media workers were detained in different locations for two years and learning their whereabouts was impossible.
It was reported in August 2025 that the Melitopol journalists and Telegram admins were imprisoned in various detention centres in Russia and the occupied part of Donetsk oblast. Heorhiy Levchenko was in a pre-trial detention centre in Mariupol, Donetsk oblast, and was likely moved to a prison in occupied Crimea later.
In March 2025, the Russian-installed prosecutor’s office of Zaporizhzhia oblast charged Levchenko with “high treason and public calls for extremism.”
As reported by RIA Pivden, Heorhiy has a son aged 13, a wife, and parents, who remain under occupation.
As per latest reports by Reporters Without Borders, Melitopol Is Ukraine admin Yana Suvorova is also awaiting the ruling of a Russian court. Her trial on charges of “terrorism apologia” and “espionage” is scheduled for 17 September in Rostov, Russia. Russian media have reported that the cases against the Telegram channel admins are to be tried separately by the South District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don (Russia).
The IMI representative has learned that, according to a Russian court, the hearing in the case of Oleksandr Malyshev is scheduled for 15 September. The trial against Maksym Rupchov, which had been scheduled for 28 August, did not take place due to the defendant’s failure to appear in court, according to the Southern District Military Court website. The next hearing in Maksym Rupchov’s case is scheduled for 8 October 2025. The court is also scheduled to announce the ruling in the case against Vladyslav Hershon, an administrator of the Telegram channel Melitopol Is Ukraine who was detained two years ago, on 3 September.
