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.
The court passed the sentence on 3 September 2025, Reporters Without Borders report, citing Hershon’s family.
According to Natalia Vyhovska, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Zaporizhzhia oblast, who cited the Russian court’s website, the case against Vladyslav was opened in May 2025. He was charged under three articles of the Russian Criminal Code:
- 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.
The case was tried by Judge Gurgen Dovlatbekyan, appointed to this position by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2021. In addition to his judicial career, he has also been an associate professor at the Department of Criminal Law and Public Law Disciplines at the Don State Technical University (Russia) since September 2022.
According to the court’s website, the judge passed the ruling in Hershon’s case alone. According to the Russian court, the last hearing in the case took place on 2 September with the court “retreating into the deliberation room to pass the verdict.” The ruling announcement was scheduled for 3 September at 9:30 a.m. There is currently no official information about the ruling on the website.
However, the Russian human rights organization Memorial, which supports political prisoners, confirmed the verdict, citing the press service of the Southern District Military Court of Rostov-on-Don (Russia). According to them, the prosecutor requested 18 years in prison for Vladyslav Hershon. The case was considered in camera due to “the case files containing state secrets.”
According to the Russian news outlet Mediazona, Vladyslav, aged 27, was accused of having, on the instructions of the State Security Service, asked his subscribers to report the locations of Russian military unit and equipment via a feedback bot and then passed the information on to Ukrainian intelligence. Hershon and the other administrators of the channel were accused of helping aim the Ukrainian missile strike at the Melitopol College building, where the Russian Guard and FSB officers were located, on the 50th Anniversary of Victory Avenue.
Vladyslav Hershon is on the Institute of Mass Information’s list of 26 media workers unlawfully detained by Russia.
Previously
On 2 September, 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.
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 administrators were in pre-trial detention centers in Russia and the occupied part of Donetsk oblast. According to Reporters Without Borders, Vladyslav Hershon of the Telegram channel Melitopol Is Ukraine was first imprisoned in a detention center in Mariupol and later moved to Rostov (Russia), where he was awaiting trial. People close to him told Reporters Without Borders that the conditions of his detention were “horrible and inhumane.” After the move, his letters became less frequent, the last one being dated June 2025. His trial was postponed three times, the last time being from August 13 to September 2, without explanation.