The IPI global network welcomes the release of Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Khilyuk as part of a recent prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia. Mark Kaliush, a citizen journalist from Melitopol, was also able to return home following the swap.

“While we welcome the release of these journalists, IPI continues to condemn Russia’s politically motivated detention and imprisonment of several more Ukrainian media workers. Close to 30 of these still remain behind bars,” said IPI Eastern Europe Advocacy Lead Karol Łuczka. “Reports on their mistreatment by prison authorities, as well as the lack of official information on the conditions of their detention by Russia, have fueled fears of friends and colleagues in Ukraine, especially following the death in unclear circumstances of journalist Victoria Roshchyna.”

Khilyuk, a correspondent for Ukrainian news agency UNIAN, was taken hostage by Russian forces in the first days of the full-scale invasion, soon after reporting on Facebook that his village of Kozarovychi near Kyiv was under Russian occupation. For over three years following his detention, Khilyuk’s family, friends and colleagues were not able to contact him in any way.

While Russian authorities never officially confirmed his arrest, unofficial reports indicated that Khilyuk was in fact being held behind bars in Russia, in unclear circumstances. Following his return to Ukraine, the UNIAN journalist was immediately hospitalized, as a result of health issues developed while in Russian captivity.

Russian forces also released Mark Kaliush, one of at least seven citizen journalists from Ukraine’s southern city of Melitopol, which remains under Russian occupation since March 2022. Together with his colleagues, Kaliush previously ran RIA Melitopol, an anonymous Telegram channel on life under Russian occupation, which provided independent news to locals in Melitopol.

The group was detained in August 2023 as part of a crackdown by Russian security forces, with Russian state-controlled media airing news on their arrests at the time. Kaliush’s fellow journalists, in all likelihood, remain in Russian captivity.

IPI renews its call for the unconditional release of at least 26 Ukrainian journalists currently detained without proper cause in Russia or in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. At least 15 of these journalists were detained since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to IPI monitoring.