“We thought we’d be safe”: the story of Iryna Levchenko, a Ukrainian journalist detained by Russia
By Valeriia Muskharina, National Union of Journalists of Ukraine
Journalism is not a crime. This principle drives the ongoing solidarity campaign which unites the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) in demanding Russia release all Ukrainian media workers it holds in captivity. This shared commitment will be marked on 26 May with a special screening of the NUJU documentary Free The Voices at the Brussels Press Club.
The film follows six journalists who survived Russian detention and bears witness to those still waiting. One of them is Iryna Levchenko, a 64-year-old veteran journalist from Melitopol who has been held without a confirmed charge for nearly three years. NUJU, the IFJ, and EFJ have called for her release since the day Iryna’s arrest became known. What her family has lived through since is the subject of this report.
On the morning of 6 May 2023, Iryna Levchenko and her husband Oleksandr were stopped on a street in Russian-occupied Melitopol, their phones checked, and then they were taken away in an unknown direction. A neighbour who witnessed the moment told the family what had happened. Some days of silence followed – broken only by a note from Oleksandr saying they were being held somewhere on Chernyshevsky Street and accused of terrorism.
Iryna Levchenko is 64 years old, a veteran journalist with 40 years of experience and a member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. At the time of her arrest, she had already retired and was living quietly with her husband in their home city. Elderly and in poor health, the couple had stayed in Melitopol after the Russian occupation in February 2022, seeing no reason to believe that two retired people would be of interest to anyone. They were wrong.
Nearly three years without a verdict
Oleksandr was released after one year and four months – without documents or bank cards, handed a certificate stating he had been detained for 21 days for violating curfew. Iryna was not released. She has been transferred between detention facilities across occupied territory: Donetsk, Mariupol, Melitopol, and now – as of early 2026 – Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 1 in Simferopol, occupied Crimea, where she is awaiting trial. The case is classified, and the charges (“terrorism,” “complicity,” “transfer of data”) have not been officially confirmed to her family. “We don’t even know exactly what she is accused of, because the case is secret – which means many opportunities to fabricate it,” her sister Olena Rudenko told NUJU. Formally, Iryna has a lawyer, but a state-appointed one who, according to the family, has almost no influence on the proceedings.
For almost three years, the family heard nothing. Then in July 2025, a brief handwritten note reached them – the first sign of life in over two years – telling where Iryna was being held and that a trial was being prepared. Conditions in the Simferopol detention centre, as Iryna describes in her rare letters, are severe: a cell shared by six women, poor food, cold, illness, and no adequate medical care for a woman past 60. Iryna’s cellmate from Melitopol, a woman of similar age, has already been sentenced to approximately 12.5 years for alleged “complicity” and transferred to serve her sentence elsewhere.
Tracking Iryna’s whereabouts, in her sister’s words, proved nearly impossible. Occupation authorities redirected the family from one institution to another without confirming anything, while information passed through informal networks was often outdated by the time it arrived. “Someone writes that she is in one place. By the time we start searching, they say she was seen somewhere else,” Olena told NUJU. “You canʼt simply call and ask. You have to find people who know something about that specific facility, and even when they wrote she was in Sevastopol, she wasn’t there. I asked for the contact of the person who had seen her. No response. And so it went, for months.”
International organisations demand her release
At least 28 Ukrainian journalists are currently held in Russian captivity. Their cases – including Iryna Levchenkoʼs – remain in the permanent focus of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, which has built a sustained campaign combining international advocacy, public pressure, and direct support for families of the detained.
The IFJ and EFJ joined that campaign immediately after Iryna Levchenko’s disappearance became known. In their June 2023 joint statement, the federations demanded her immediate and unconditional release: “The IFJ and EFJ express solidarity with the NUJU in condemning the illegal arrest of Levchenko and call on the authorities of the occupied territories to immediately release her and all other journalists held behind bars.” At the international level, NUJU has consistently addressed the OSCE, the United Nations, and the Council of Europe with calls to intensify pressure on Russia. These calls are consistently backed by the IFJ and EFJ. Among the concrete steps proposed: personal sanctions against those responsible for the abductions and persecution of media workers.
Levchenkoʼs case also appears on the Council of Europe Platform for the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists as an urgent alert that obliges international institutions to keep the situation under continuous monitoring.
In May 2025, at the Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Journalists, delegates unanimously backed a resolution put forward by NUJU, pressing the European Commission, European governments, and the International Committee of the Red Cross to take immediate action on Ukrainian journalists in Russian captivity. The resolution urges strengthened diplomatic and sanctions pressure on Russia, the creation of an international mechanism for the release of civilian journalists, and an urgent inspection of detention conditions. NUJU President Sergiy Tomilenko named Levchenko from the EFJ podium alongside other imprisoned colleagues: “Russia must unconditionally release them.”
Her name has continued to be heard on major international platforms. At the Media Freedom Forum in London (2026), Sergiy Tomilenko called on the international community to sustain pressure on Russia for the release of Ukrainian media workers: “Journalists seized by Russia must not disappear from the diplomatic agenda. Their names must consistently be heard at international forums and within monitoring mechanisms.”
In March 2026, the editor-in-chief of Melitopol outlet RIA Pivden, Svitlana Zalizetska, met with Christopher Anderson, Director of the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of State, alongside Olena Rudenko and freed Crimea.Realities journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko. The meeting, organised by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), focused on possible avenues for Levchenko’s release. In a subsequent statement to the United States Congress, CPJ called for the release of Ukrainian journalists unlawfully held by Russia to be made a diplomatic priority – with Iryna Levchenko’s case specifically highlighted.
Alongside international advocacy, NUJU has maintained a continuous public presence. The union regularly publishes materials on journalists held in captivity to ensure their stories do not disappear from public space. Its YouTube channel hosts a dedicated series, Executed Free Speech, documenting the cases of imprisoned media workers. The photo project of the same name has been exhibited at the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg and at the Kyiv Journalism Solidarity Centre. “Our duty is to speak for those who have been silenced,” the NUJU Solidarity Statement reads. “Despite all risks, only publicity, international solidarity, and sustained pressure offer a chance to save the lives and freedom of journalists.”
A civilian taken hostage
Under international humanitarian law, the taking of civilian hostages is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention, but Russia frequently circumvents this by opening criminal proceedings – charging civilians with “espionage” or “terrorism” to reclassify them as “criminals” and use them as leverage in negotiations. Levchenkoʼs case follows this pattern: a retired journalist, stopped on a street, held for nearly three years without a confirmed charge, transferred between facilities to make her harder to track, and now facing a classified trial with a state-appointed lawyer her family says has almost no influence on the proceedings.
Olena Rudenko has little faith in official mechanisms. The International Committee of the Red Cross, she says, offered no meaningful assistance from the start. So, now she cooperates with civil society organisations focused on civilian captives, including the Ukrainian survivors-led network “Numo, Sisters!” and the initiative “Civilians in Captivity.” In March 2026, she participated in a side event at the 70th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York, organised by NUJU and its partners, speaking about the targeted persecution of Ukrainian women journalists alongside NUJU First Secretary Lina Kushch.
The story of Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, freed in August 2025 after more than three years in Russian captivity, gives the family some hope. “Criminals love darkness and silence. Light scares them. Publicity across the world is the only thing that works in such cases,” Khyliuk said after his release. Levchenkoʼs husband Oleksandr has taken that lesson seriously in his own way: he remains in Melitopol, refusing to leave, waiting for his wife at home.
“She chose loyalty to Ukraine,” Iryna’s sister Olena says of her, adding that nearly three years behind bars, Iryna has remained a source of support for her cellmates rather than a broken woman. “She is a very positive person – I hope that helps her not to fall apart, and to get sick less in those conditions.”
The family is waiting for one phone call: “The best gift fate could give me would be the words: ‘Your sister has been included in an exchange.’ I would drop everything and just be with her for a few days.”
Civilian hostages cannot remain in silence. They should be talked about all the time: until they return home, and those who imprisoned them face justice. On 26 May, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, in partnership with the International Commission on Missing Persons, the European Federation of Journalists, and the Brussels Press Club, invites you to a special screening of Free The Voices – a documentary investigating the unlawful detention of Ukrainian journalists by Russia and the ongoing efforts to secure their release. Details and registration can be found at NUJU website.
