Russia has imposed the worst sentences to date in its ongoing persecution of young Ukrainian journalists and administrators of two Telegram channels RIA-Melitopol and Melitopol is Ukraine abducted on 20 August 2023 or shortly afterwards. The only ‘evidence’ presented to back surreal ‘spying’ and ‘terrorism’ charges and the 26-year sentence against Denys Hlushchenko and Oleksandr Malyshev almost certainly came from ‘confessions’ extracted through torture while the young Ukrainians were held incommunicado. Russia has now passed seven horrific sentences against media workers from occupied Melitopol in ‘trials’ which Reporters without Borders have condemned as aimed at criminalizing independent journalism and terrorizing the population. There remains terrifying silence about the whereabouts of journalist Anastasia Hlukhovska, who is known to have been abducted at the same time.
There is little sense in treating the ‘trial’ of Denys Hlushchenko (b. 9.10.1990) and Oleksandr Malyshev (b. 5.11.1999) as in any way separate from those earlier against fellow journalists / Telegram administrators Yana Suvorova; Vladyslav Hershon, Heorhiy Levchenko, Maksym Rupchov and Mark Kaliush. The charges appear to have been virtually identical in most of the cases, with it likely that separate ‘trials’ were staged in order to deflect attention from the clear persecution of pro-Ukrainian media workers.
The charges against Hlushchenko and Malyshev (as well as most of the others) were under Article 205.4 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code (‘involvement in a terrorist organization’); Article 205 § 2a and c (planning a terrorist attack) and ‘spying’, under Article 276.
It was claimed that in 2022, the men had established contact with Ukraine’s Military Intelligence and that in February 2023, the organizers of this alleged ‘terrorist organization’ had decided to carry out an act of terrorism’. This is what the Russians call a missile strike by Ukraine’s Armed Forces against the Russian invaders. “From 10-11 February 2023, Hlushchenko, Malyshev and other members of the terrorist organization, by means of a Telegram channel; a Telegram feedback bot; a chat bot and visual observation, had gathered and checked information coming from unidentified individuals”, with this telling them where Russian military or so-called ‘enforcement bodies’ were deployed. Their information had, purportedly, led to a strike on the headquarters of Russia’s Rosgvardia and totally or partially destroyed the building.
The Southern District Military Court claims that Hlushchenko and Malyshev’s “criminal activities” were stopped on 17 October 2023.
The men’s ‘trial’ took place before ‘judge’ Vitaly Victorovich Mamedov, who has taken part in passing huge sentences against many Ukrainian political prisoners. On 27 April 2026, both men were sentenced to 26 years’ maximum-security imprisonment, with the first five years in a prison, the harshest of all Russia’s penal institutions.
The sentences can be challenged before a military court of appeal. The court’s press service claimed that both men had “fully admitted guilt”. That seems unlikely given the fairly large number of hearings since 2 June 2025.
Russia has swiftly moved to crush independent media and replace it with propaganda on any Ukrainian territory that it has seized and Melitopol was no exception. It was on 20 August 2023 that the Russians managed to hack into and hijack the important Telegram channel RIA-Melitopol and it was then that journalists Anastasia Hlukovska and Heorhiy Levchenko, as well, probably, as Mark Kaliush; Vladyslav Hershon; Maksym Rupchov and Yana Suvorova were abducted. It is possible, but not at all guaranteed, that Denys Hlushchenko and Oleksandr Malyshev were seized later,
There was complete silence until 30 October 2023 when Russia’s FSB came up with what the real RIA-Melitopol described as “an entire blockbuster in the style of Russian propaganda”. A feature on the state-controlled news program Vesti.ru claimed to be accompanying an FSB ‘seizure squad’ on an an ‘operation’ against the above-mentioned Telegram channel administrators. The supposed ‘arrests’ were evidently staged as Kostiantyn Zinovkin had been abducted earlier and is now part of a different ‘trial’, and the Telegram administrators had been seized back in August. It was claimed that “RIA Melitopol was used “as well as its propaganda functions, for the gathering of information about the places of deployment and routes of Russian army units, and to recruit people to carry out acts of terrorism”. The ‘confessions’ from Yana Suvorova, who had only recently turned 19, from Mark Kaliush and Oleksandr Malyshev had clearly been obtained through torture and threats. This was later confirmed by Mark Kaliush, a vulnerable young man with a serious diagnosis, whom Ukraine managed to get freed in a prisoner exchange.
Nothing more was heard from the Russians until July 2025 when the first indictments (against Yana Suvorova, Mark Kaliush, Denys Hlushchenko and Oleksandr Malyshev) were reported to have been passed to the Southern District Military Court in Rostov. From then on, there was a stream of shocking sentences. In Russia’s increasing reinstatement of punitive psychiatry, Mark Kaliush (b. 24.03.1997) was sentenced in July 2023 to mandatory ‘treatment’ in a closed psychiatric institution.
On 2 September 2025, Russia’s ‘prosecutor’ in occupied Crimea reported that the occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’ had sentenced Heorhiy Levchenko (b. 27.01.1987) to 16 years on ‘treason’ and ‘extremism’ charges linked solely with the Melitopol journalist’s role as administrator to the Telegram channel RIA-Melitopol.
Less than 24 hours later, ‘judge’ Gurgen Serzhikovich Dovlatbekyan from the Southern District Military Court in Rostov sentenced another Melitopol Telegram administrator Vladyslav Hershon (b. 30.06.1998) to 15 years The charges did not appear to be different from those against Hlushchenko and Malyshev.
On 23 October 2025, the youngest of the Telegram journalists Yana Suvorova (b. 13.10.2004) was sentenced by ‘judge’ Timur Khabaovich Mashukov from Russia’s Southern District Military Court to 14 years’ imprisonment. She too was charged under Article 205.4 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code (‘involvement in a terrorist organization’); Article 205 § 2a and c (planning a terrorist attack) and Article 276 ‘spying’.
Maksym Rupchov (b. 18.04.2000), an administrator of Melitopol is Ukraine, was sentenced on 13 November 2025 by ‘judge’ Denis Aleksandrovich Galkin from the Southern District Military Court to 15 years’ maximum-security imprisonment. The charges were identical to those against Yana Suvorova, Vladyslav Herson; Denys Hlushchenko and Oleksandr Malyshev.
Russia has already killed one journalist, 27-year-old Victoria Roshchyna, and it is of immense concern that, three years after she was abducted from her home, nothing at all is known of the whereabouts of Anastasia Hlukhovska (b 26.01.1993)
