Yana Suvorova, 21, and administrator of the Ukrainian Telegram channel Melitopol Is Ukraine, was imprisoned for a time in a cell together with women convicted of felonies at the PTDC No. 2 in Taganrog (Russia). Staying in contact with her has become more difficult since the transfer, Suvorova’s partner Oleksandr Nikolayenko told RIA Pivden.
Nikolayenko said he had last spoken to Yana by phone in early June 2026.
“We can’t talk right now, because she’s been moved to a different cell. And she’s been allowed fewer calls. These things happen abruptly because they’re almost impossible to plan for,” Oleksandr said.
He added that he had received a letter from Yana shortly before, but was unable to ascertain when it had been written. Her last message before that had come at Christmas 2025.
Oleksandr said that Yana had already been moved between cells several times during her time in Taganrog. At first, she shared a two-person cell with a pregnant Russian woman. There, Yana Suvorova was able to read books, watch television, go out for walks, and occasionally call home. The phone calls varied in length. Sometimes she was given around 15 minutes, but at other times, her partner said, the guards would seemingly “forget” about her, and she would end up talking to her family for half an hour.
Later, the situation changed, and Yana was moved to a larger cell where Russian women convicted of felonies are imprisoned. The conditions there were worse. She is now in a different cell. Oleksandr does not know the exact details, but said Yana’s situation had become somewhat better.
Oleksandr said it was hard to gauge Yana’s emotional state: her letters go through filtration, and she has limited ability to speak freely about the conditions of her detention. She is holding on thanks to her parents, who travel to Taganrog regularly to see their daughter and bring her the things she needs, and thanks to her faith that she will be swapped eventually. Yana has barely written about the sentence handed down to her. Oleksandr believes censorship is one of the reasons for this. Still, he is convinced that the sentence has had an impact on her mental health.
“She can’t talk about the bad things. I think it’s all difficult for her emotionally,” he explained.
He said that Yana took active interest in the fate of other Ukrainian civilians imprisoned in Russia, closely following the news of what happens to other prisoners who have been released, and evidently hoping that one day she, too, will be freed.
In November 2025, Petras Auštrevičius, Member of European Parliament from Lithuania, agreed to become a mentor to Yana Suvorova as part of an advocacy mentorship initiative. His task is to raise awareness of her case and of the plight of Ukrainian civilians unlawfully imprisoned by Russian forces among European politicians.
Previously
Yana Suvorova was detained along with other channel administrators for RIA Melitopol and Melitopol Is Ukraine in August 2023. Back then, the Russian forces hacked the Telegram channel of the Ukrainian news outlet RIA Melitopol, which continuted to operate after the occupation of Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia oblast).
Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedoriv reported that several other pro-Ukraine Telegram channels that had been “restlessly reporting the terrible truth about life in the TOT and constantly being threatened by the occupiers” had been hacked as well.
Yana Suvorova was sentenced to 14 years in prison on 23 October 2025. The sentence was issued by the Southern District Military Court of Rostov-on-Don (Russia). She was convicted under the Russian Criminal Code articles on “organising a terrorist group and involvement in it”, “acts of terrorism,” and “espionage”. Data on the sentence was reported by the Southern District Military Court in Telegram.
Russian courts have handed down several rulings since detaining the media workers. On 2 September 2025, the Russian-installed court of Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia oblast) 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. Heorhiy was found guilty of high treason and online calls for extremism.
On 3 September 2025, the Southern District Military Court of Rostov-on-Don (Russia) sentenced Vladyslav Hershon, an administrator of the Telegram channel Melitopol is Ukraine who was detained by Russian forces in 2023, to 15 years in prison. He was charged under the same Russian Criminal Code articles as Yana Suvorova: espionage; organising a terrorist association and involvement in it; act of terrorism committed by a group of persons upon prior conspiracy or by an organised group.
Russian forces in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia oblast continue to use court rulings against Heorhiy Levchenko and Vladyslav Hershon, administrators of two Melitopol-based pro-Ukrainian Telegram channels, to intimidate Ukrainians living in the area. In early October, a month after Russian courts passed the verdicts sentencing the two men to imprisonment, pro-occupation Telegram channels made multiple posts about the topic. The posts featured clips of the detained Vladyslav Hershon “confessing” to his crimes.
Yana Suvorova is on the Institute of Mass Information’s list of 27 Ukrainian media workers unlawfully detained by Russian forces.