The second, 15-year, sentence against Melitopol Telegram administrator Vladyslav Hershon came less than 24 hours after an occupation ‘court’ sentenced journalist and RIA-Melitopol administrator Heorhiy Levchenko to 16 years. Since the two sentences, purportedly on slightly different charges, were clearly coordinated, it is probably a matter of time before similar reports are issued regarding the other courageous pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel administrators seized in August 2023 and tortured for insane ‘confessions’ broadcast on Russian propaganda TV. There is, essentially, no possibility of doing more than awaiting the sentences, as all such ‘trials’, which Reporters without Borders [RSF] condemned as a “travesty of justice” take place behind closed doors.
Russia earlier used five cloned ‘trials’ to deflect public attention from its persecution and horrific sentences passed against 25 Crimean Tatar journalists and civic activists. The tactic in 2025 is not dissimilar with two Melitopol journalists abducted on the same day ‘tried’ under different articles of Russia’s criminal code and in different ‘courts’, one of which is entitled the ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’, yet appears to pass sentences in occupied Crimea. More formal details are available of the ’trial’ which has just ended of Vladyslav Hershon, as this was held at Russia’s Southern District Military Court in Rostov. The court has been notorious for its horrific sentences of Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners since 2014, and this is not the first time that ‘judge’ Gurgen Serzhikovich Dovlatbekyan has taken part in such an illegal travesty. There were very few hearings, from 15 May 2025 when the indictment was passed to the court to 3 September when the sentence was passed. Hershon was sentenced to 15 years’ maximum-security imprisonment, with the first three years in a prison, the harshest of Russia’s penal institutions.
Vladyslav Hershon was born on 30 June 1998 and had clearly not taken Russian citizenship, as he was charged with ‘spying’ under Article 276 of Russia’s criminal code (rather than ‘treason through spying’, under Article 275). He was also accused of ‘involvement in a terrorist organization’ under Article 205.4 § 2; and of ‘an act of terrorism’ under Article 205 § 2a & b.
It was claimed that Hershon and the other administrators of the Telegram channel Melitopol is Ukraine had, on instructions from Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, asked subscribers to inform them via a feedback bot about the build up of Russian military and technology, and had then passed this information on to Ukrainian intelligence officers. Mediazona has learned that Hershon was charged, together with other administrators: Denys Hlushchenko; Oleksandr Malyshev; Maksym Rupchov and Yana Suvorova, with having directed Ukrainian missile fire at a building on 50th Anniversary of Victory Avenue which had been commandeered by the Russian FSB and Rosgvardia in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast. Ukraine’s Armed Forces had, certainly, carried out an attack on this building, using a HIMARS missile on 27 March 2023, although those inside had vacated the building when the sirens sounded.
Despite Yevhen Balytsky, the collaborator appointed as occupation ‘governor’, trying to claim that this had been some kind of civilian site, it was, very clearly, a legitimate target for Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
The attempt to link that attack with administrators of a pro-Ukrainian Melitopol Telegram channel was almost certainly based solely on ‘confessions’ extracted through torture and threats when six or seven journalists and / or Telegram administrators, including journalist Heorgiy Levchenko; Mark Kaliush, and Anastasia Hluchovska had been held incommunicado for three months.
The propaganda feature on 29 October 2023 did not try to conceal the fact that the young Ukrainians had been targeted as administrators of RIA Melitopol, which they claimed was a ‘fake’ channel, and Melitopol is Ukraine , which was referred to as “hostile”. Both were described as trying to encourage local residents “to spy”. It did, however, claim that the young men and women, who had been without any access to a lawyer or contact with their families since 20 August, had been ”arrested” just days before the program.
There was nothing fake about RIA Melitopol until the invaders succeeded in hacking and taking it over on 20 August 2023. On that same day, they seized the above-mentioned administrators. The real RIA-Melitopol, now found here, reported on 30 October that Russia had come up with “an entire blockbuster in the style of Russian propaganda” over two months after seizing their Telegram channel and abducting its administrators. The aim of all of this, including the enforced ‘repentance’ of 19-year-old Yana Suvorova; Mark Kaliush, a young man suffering from schizophrenia and the others, RIA-Melitopol stressed, was to terrorize the civilian population and threaten them with horrific consequences for supporting Ukraine and reading Ukrainian Telegram channels. The channel noted that the Russian invaders usually pull such stunts, deploying terror against the local population, when they are not having any success at the front.
In condemning these sentences, Jeanne Cavelier, Head of the RSF Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk, stated that “These first sentences send a chilling signal to the four other media professionals seized in Melitopol who remain behind bars. These are not trials, but political spectacles. Russia is weaponising its justice system to criminalise independent journalism in the occupied territories. RSF calls for the immediate release of Heorhiy Levtchenko, Vladyslav Hershon, and the other journalists imprisoned by the Kremlin for their reporting.”
It should be stressed that the whereabouts are currently unknown of Anastasia Hluchowvska, who was seized with the others. Mark Kaliush is, thankfully, safely back in Ukraine after being included in a prisoner exchange on Independence Day (24 August).
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