The Kremlin’s judicial machine is firing on all cylinders against arbitrarily detained Ukrainian reporters

"Throughout my entire life, I have never been convicted of breaking the law […] And even though I have spent three years in prison, I have not committed a single offence, not even a minor one. This is the reality, and it does not correspond in any way with the charges brought against me." These words, spoken on 25 November by Crimean reporter Vilen Temerianovduring his trial, illustrate the repression crashing down on independent Ukrainian journalists being tracked downby the Kremlin in the occupied territories. On Wednesday 26 November, the military court in Rostov-on-Don, southwest Russia, sentenced him to 14 years in prison for "participating in the activities of a terrorist organization" and "preparing for a violence seizure of power." The reporter, who worked for the independent local media outlet Grani.ru, now closed, was arrested in August 2022 and remains detained in a high-security prison.

A day earlier, on 25 November, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center - an NGO specialising in human rights violations in Crimea - revealedthat Ukrainian journalist Hennadiy Osmakhad been transferred two months earlier from the occupied territories of Ukraine to a notoriously strict penal colony in Melekhovo, in the Vladimir region east of Moscow. According to those close to him, who had no news of him for several weeks, he has no access to his diabetes treatment and is subjected to physical and psychological violence. Arrested in March 2024 in the occupied Kherson region, in August 2024he was sentenced to 3 years and 2 months in prison for "involvement in an illegal armed group." His appeal trial is scheduled for 11 December.

A wave of convictions and deportations

Convictions targeting Ukrainian reporters keep coming, as do their systematic deportationsto Russia and other occupied territories. In October 2025, the administrator of the local Telegram channel Melitopol is Ukraine, Yana Suvorova, was sentencedto 14 years in prison. Before her, reporters Vladyslav Hershonand Heorhiy Levchenkowere sentencedto 15 and 16 years respectively.

RSF regularly partnerswith Ukrainian organisations such as the Center for Civil Liberties and the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) to call for the release of the 26 Ukrainian journalists.

If you have any information about Ukrainian journalists detained by Russia, you can contact us securely at [email protected]