Over 25 Ukrainian journalists held in Russian captivity

As of today, more than 25 Ukrainian journalists are in Russian captivity, according to the head of the Ukrainian Parliament Committee on Freedom of Speech and a member of the "Holos" faction Yaroslav Yurchyshyn,

During an online discussion on the topic "Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech: Limits of Responsibility and Compliance," the official named two major lines of work needed for the release of prisoners, Ukrinform reports.

"We have two major blocks. The first is the search for mechanisms to intensify the release of imprisoned journalists. According to the latest data, over 25 of your colleagues are currently in captivity. These are not combatants; these are journalists doing their job. According to civilized rules of war, they shouldn't be in captivity at all, but the fact is a fact. We understand how uncivilized Russia is and how it tramples on any human rights," said the MP.

Yurchyshyn said that one of the priorities of his work as the committee chairman is to protect the rights of journalists. According to the parliamentarian, it is necessary, on one hand, to actively involve the international community in the release of journalists and, on the other hand, to "jointly prepare — with monitoring organizations, jointly with journalistic associations — a component on the liability in the International Criminal Court for crimes against freedom of speech, crimes against journalists, possibly strengthening such liability through clarifying certain concepts in Ukrainian legislation."

At the same time, the MP added that "not only Russia, unfortunately, hinders the quality work of journalists."

"We have seen a nearly 80% drop in investigations into crimes against journalists in 2022 compared to 2021. Everything can be explained by war, but as a country moving toward the European community, for which the value of freedom of speech is one of the fundamental principles, we definitely should not allow this," said Yurchyshyn. "We have already planned communications with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, communication with the National Police, with the Prosecutor General's Office. We will hold hearings in the committee about the investigation of cases of obstruction of journalistic activity. We are currently waiting for data for 2023 to speak about truly up-to-date information."

What we know about the detained Ukrainian journalists

Among the media workers recently detained by the Russian occupiers is Viktoria Roshchyna, who went to perform her professional duty in the temporarily occupied territory and lost contact with her colleagues several months ago.

In March 2022, Roshchyna was already captured by Russian occupiers and held in Berdiansk for ten days. After five days, the occupiers released her from captivity.

Russians are also holding hostage Iryna Levchenko, who covered events in Melitopol and Zaporizhzhia.

Yurchyshyn also mentioned Dmytro Khyliuk, a journalist from the "UNIAN" news agency, whom occupiers took captive during the attempt to occupy Kyiv and the Kyiv region. As of today, he is in one of Russia's prisons.

In May of this year, Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets reported that, in response to a question about any progress in the release of UNIAN journalist Dmytro Khyliuk from Russian captivity, all efforts made by the Ukrainian authorities, himself, and other state bodies of Ukraine have not shown positive results so far.