Russia is running a systemic campaign of disinformation, censorship, and persecution of journalists across the Ukrainian territories it occupies, Ukraine's first secretary at the UN, Dmytro Tymoshenko, told the UN General Assembly's Committee on Information, according to Ukrinform. He named individual captives by city, listed the toll of journalists killed since the full-scale invasion, and called on UN members to demand their release.
Russia inverts the language to legalize repression
The Russian war against Ukraine comes with a systemic campaign of disinformation, censorship, and violence against journalists and media workers, Tymoshenko said. Russian authorities try to erase the line between journalism and propaganda, calling their propagandists "journalists" while prosecuting real media workers as "terrorists," "extremists," and Ukrainian "saboteurs." Illegal detentions are dressed up as "counter-terrorism measures," but the actual goal is to suppress pro-Ukrainian sentiment and consolidate control over occupied territories.
Eight named journalists from Melitopol
Tymoshenko named eight journalists illegally detained in temporarily occupied Melitopol: Yana Suvorova, Heorhii Levchenko, Vladyslav Hershon, Oleksandr Malyshev, Yevhen Ilchenko, Maksym Rupchov, Anastasiia Hlukhovska, and Iryna Levchenko. Some were kidnapped in August 2023 after covering life under occupation. They are now charged with "terrorism," "espionage," or "sabotage" — either still in illegal detention or already serving long prison terms after Russian court verdicts.
Journalists in Ukraine face same mortal danger as soldiers, and 30 of them remain in Russian captivity, says official at OSCE
Crimea and Kherson cases
The statement also addressed repression in temporarily occupied Crimea, where journalists Iryna Danylovych and Vilen Temerianov have been illegally detained since 2022 on fabricated terrorism charges. In 2024, Crimean Tatar journalists Rustem Osmanov and Aziz Azizov were illegally detained on similar fabricated charges of involvement in a terrorist organization. In Kherson Oblast, journalist and editor Hennadii Osmak was kidnapped and is being prosecuted on fabricated charges.
The Ukrainian delegation said these cases form part of a deliberate policy to suppress independent voices in occupied territories.
147 killed, 26 in captivity
At least 26 Ukrainian media workers and one media worker who became a soldier are in Russian captivity, the statement said. Russia has killed at least 147 media workers since the start of the full-scale invasion, Tymoshenko said.
Some have come home in prisoner exchanges showing the physical toll of years in Russian custody.
Russian prison chief charged over deaths of journalist Roschina and Ukrainian mayor in torture facility
On 7 April 2026, journalist Yana Shkarlat received burns from a Russian strike on Pryluky in Chernihiv Oblast and died from her injuries two weeks later. Russia's policy of persecuting and killing media workers aims to suppress independent coverage and hide war crimes, Tymoshenko said.
The Ukrainian delegation called on UN members to demand the immediate and unconditional release of all illegally detained Ukrainian media workers, condemn the systematic persecution of journalists, and step up countermeasures against Russian disinformation campaigns. Ukraine's parliament created a Temporary Investigative Commission on Russian crimes against journalists in December 2025.
