Iryna Levchenko, a retired Ukrainian journalist now aged 64, was abducted on a street in Russian-occupied territory exactly three years ago, on 6 May 2023, and has been a Kremlin prisoner ever since, awaiting a trial that has been repeatedly postponed. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for her immediate and unconditional release.
She is “holding up,” her sister Olena said when asked about Iryna’s Kremlin prison ordeal, now entering its fourth year. News from the former reporter is brief, consisting of short letters written from a cell that reach her loved ones thanks to volunteers.
Iryna Levchenko's prison journey can be pieced together thanks to her sister’s constant monitoring. Abducted by Russian forces in broad daylight on 6 May 2023 in Melitopol, an occupied city in southeastern Ukraine, she has been detained without trial ever since. Initially held in Melitopol, she was transferred in 2025 to a detention centre in Donetsk, another occupied city in eastern Ukraine, and then in 2026 to Simferopol, in occupied Crimea. She awaits a trial behind closed doors after being accused in January 2026 of “espionage” – a charge often used by the Kremlin to silence Ukrainian reporters in the occupied territories.
“Iryna Levchenko’s case exemplifies the Kremlin’s systematic repression in the occupied territories with the aim of silencing all outspoken media voices. Even a retired journalist is arrested and jailed for her past services to the news media and for her independence in her work. RSF calls for the charges against her to be dropped and for her release.
A leading figure in local journalism
Although she was no longer working at the time of her arrest, Iryna Levchenko had continued to be a prominent figure in Melitopol. She reported the news for her fellow citizens for more than 40 years, above all via the local paper Novy Den. When the Russian army invaded the city in February 2022, she chose to stay. The Russians cracked down hard a year later, when she and her husband were snatched in broad daylight. Their loved ones only learned of their abduction several days later. Her husband was released in August 2024, after a year and a half, but Iryna continues to be held.
A total of 26 Ukrainian journalists are currently held by the Kremlin, making Russia the world’s leading jailer of foreign journalists, all Ukrainian, most of them held in inhumane conditions, as demonstrated by the final hours of Victoria Roshchyna, a Ukrainian reporter who died in a Russian prison in September 2025 in circumstances revealed by an RSF investigation.
Ukraine and Russia are ranked 55th and 172nd respectively in RSF’s 2026 World Press Freedom Index
