Russian court sentences RIA Melitopol journalist Heorhii Levchenko

After two years of captivity, journalist Heorhii Levchenko heard the verdict from the occupation-run “Zaporizhzhia Regional Court.”

According to RIA Pivden (the current name of RIA Melitopol), 16 years in a strict regime colony and another year of restriction of liberty — that’s how much Georgy was given for simply telling the truth about the war and occupation.

He was accused of “treason,” “extremism,” and even “transmitting data on the location of russian military personnel.”

All this — just for running a Ukrainian Telegram channel, for his active civic stance, and his unwillingness to remain silent.

The ruscists captured Heorhii in August 2023. At first, he was held in so-called garages, where they were tortured, then transferred to the Melitopol pre-trial detention center, and then transferred to the Mariupol pre-trial detention center.

In a video that later appeared, russian propagandists showed how they detained Heorhii and interrogated him in a cell. It is possible that the filming of the detention was staged.