Russia’s political imprisonment survivor, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko spent 41 days travelling the world and speaking out about his experience in prison and the need to achieve the release of Ukrainian media workers quickly. He talked about this with Institute of Mass Information journalist Valentyna Troyan.
During his travels, Yesypenko visited the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and the United States. “There were many events, so I can’t say which one was the biggest,” the journalist confessed.
In London, he met with British MP Sir John Whittingdale. Yesypenko says that the British politician “really wants to help our country.”
In Strasbourg, France, the journalist spoke at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe along with a group of human rights activists and MP Yevhenia Kravchuk.
In the United States, he visited the State Department, holding private meetings with diplomats and officers dealing with hostage issues.
“It was nice that some of them were ethnic Ukrainians who were also very sympathetic to Ukraine,” the journalist said.
The main message Yesypenko conveyed at all the meetings was that Ukrainian political prisoners must be freed.
“They must be brought home alive as soon as possible,” he stressed.
Yesypenko said that the stories of Ukrainian political prisoners who have been detained for over nine years had the greatest emotional impact on the audience.
“When I spoke about the fate of my friends, Halyna Dovhopola, Kostya Shyring, Vanya Yatskin, Ihor Kupych, Bohdan Ziza, people started crying. They were shocked by what Russia is doing to Ukrainian patriots in its prisons,” he said.
The reaction in Switzerland and the United States was particularly emotional, he added.
“At those meetings, people just sat in silence and did not even ask any questions for some time,” the journalist recalls.
He also met with PEN America representatives, thanking them for their support, and recorded a video address to American actor Michael Douglas.
Despite the intense schedule (several meetings a day) Yesypenko is willing to continue his travels.
“When they asked me about fatigue, I replied that I had already had a four years’ ‘rest’ [in Russian prison],” he said.
According to the journalist, retelling one’s own story is psychologically difficult, but necessary. “This must be done so that more people in different countries know the truth,” explained Vladyslav Yesypenko.
He emphasized that the state should be more attentive to Ukrainian political prisoners and their families. “Ukrainian political prisoners deserve attention and respect no less than our soldiers who are currently defending Ukraine,” he said.
Vladyslav Yesypenko’s case
On 10 March 2021, Russia’s FSB detained “Radio Liberty” freelancer journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko in the occupied Crimea. Yesypenko took part in a demonstration dedicated to Taras Shevchenko’s birth anniversary, which took place in Simferopol on 9 March. Vladyslav Yesypenko was charged with gathering information “in the interests of Ukraine’s special services,” including the Foreign Intelligence Service. According to the FSB, Yesypenko “had been performing photo and video recording of the area, welfare facilities, and places of mass gatherings of people in the Crimea.”
Vladyslav Yesypenko has said that FSB investigators had tortured him in order to coerce him into confessing.
On 16 February 2022, the Russian-controlled Simferopol District Court sentenced Krym.Realii freelancer Vladyslav Yesypenko to six years in penal colony for alleged illegal storage and transportation of an explosive device.
Speaking in court on 15 February, Yesypenko said the case was politically motivated.
Vladyslav Yesypenko was released and left occupied Crimea on 20 June 2025, having spent over four years in a Russian prison.
