Almost three years after abducting Ukrainian journalist Anastasia Hlukhovska from her home in occupied Melitopol, Russia is continuing to hold her incommunicado with any information that her family has received coming almost solely from former hostages freed in prisoner exchanges. The secrecy is of particular concern as Hlukhovska is known to have been held at the notorious Siberian SIZO No. 1 in Kizel since at least late June 2025. This is the remand prison where 27-year-old Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna and Dniprorudne Mayor Yevhen Matvieiev died after being subjected to torture.
Hlukhovska’s family have learned that the young journalist went on hunger strike after being moved to SIZO No. 1 in Kizel (Perm oblast), but have no information about any particular reason, nor about how long it lasted. Daryna Fomenko has told RIA South that her sister had all her hair shaven off when brought to the prison. The conditions at the SIZO are extremely harsh with prisoners not allowed to sit or lie down during the day. Anastasia already suffered from endometriosis, Daryna says, with the conditions in the SIZO now meaning that she also has problems with her legs swelling.
One released prisoner has confirmed that he saw Hlukhovska at SIZO No. 1 when men and women prisoners were taken outside at the same time. While there was no direct contact, such information is invaluable. As Daryna said, “She is alive, and that is the main thing”,
From another former hostage, they have learned that Anastasia works in a SIZO sewing workshop.
It should be stressed that the appalling conditions and treatment in this SIZO are being meted out to Ukrainian civilian hostages, like Hlukhovska, who were abducted from occupied territory and to Ukrainian prisoners of war. It is likely that the conditions were even worse, with checks reportedly carried out after 27-year-old Victoria Roshchyna died just eight days after being brought from an equally notorious SIZO in Taganrog to Kizel. If, in her case, it is not clear whether the torture which she suffered was at Taganrog only, or also at the Kizel SIZO, abducted Mayor of Dniprorudne, Yevhen Matvieiev died two days after being subjected to the torture session that Russia calls its ‘prison admission’ [«приемка»]. It seems the conditions did slightly improve after the checks, with the prisoners receiving bed linen and being better fed.
Anastasia Hlukhovska (b. 26.01.1993) was one of at least six Melitopol journalists and / or administrators of the independent Telegram channels RIA-Melitopol and Melitopol is Ukraine who were seized by the Russians in raids early on 20 August 2023, or soon afterwards. Russia has swiftly moved to crush independent media and replace it with propaganda on any Ukrainian territory that it has seized, with this clearly the motive behind the abductions of so many journalists. They came immediately after 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 not clear when Denys Hlushchenko and Oleksandr Malyshev were seized, except that this was before 30 October 2023. It was on that day that 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 ‘operation’ against the above-mentioned Telegram channel administrators. 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.
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.
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 same Southern District Military Court to 15 years’ maximum-security imprisonment.
On 28 April 2026, Denys Hlushchenko (b. 9.10.1990) and Oleksandr Malyshev (b. 5.11.1999) received 26-year maximum-security sentences. The charges were identical to those against Yana Suvorova and Vladyslav Herson with the sentences handed down by ‘judge’ Vitaly Victorovich Mamedov, from the Southern District Military Court.
Hlukhovska was shown being taken away in the October 2023 propaganda film and it remains unclear why she has been held incommunicado for so long, with no charges laid. One possible, but very disturbing, explanation is that the lack of any charges and official status makes it easier to keep her hidden.
In October 2025, Slidstvo spoke with a former hostage who was held in the Melitopol basement which the Russians turned into a torture chamber when other hostages, including Nastya Hlukhovska and Yana Suvorova were brought in. She reports terrible screams, clearly from torture, and was told that Hlukhovska had been tortured with the use of electric currents. The report notes that there was effective confirmation of this in the fact that the hostage was asked if she had heart medication, used because of the huge strain on the heart caused by such torture.
Both Hlukhovska and Suvorova are known to have been taken from Melitopol to SIZO No. 2 in Taganrog, a remand prison which was, at the time, notorious for its torture of Ukrainian civilian hostages and POWs.
