THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
In a letter sent in mid-July to the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Giuseppina “Pina” Picierno, Ukrainian journalist Iryna Danylovych condemned the psychological torture being inflicted on prisoners in the russian prison where she has been held since being deported from Crimea almost two years ago, RSF reports.
In response, Pina Picierno expressed her “deep concern” on 18 July. RSF is demanding the immediate release of Iryna Danylovych and is calling on the European Union to continue its efforts to free Ukrainian journalists imprisoned by the Kremlin.
“Torture without visible traces” is psychological violence that is invisible to the body but has devastating long-term consequences. These are the terms used by Iryna Danilovich, an independent journalist from Crimea, to describe the conditions of her imprisonment. Deported from Crimea on July 24, 2023, she was transferred to a women’s prison in Zelenokumsk in southern russia, almost 1,000 kilometers from her home region, where she has been held for almost two years.
In a letter to European Parliament Vice President Pina Picierno, part of the contents of which were released by her family on July 15, she denounced the regime of psychological harassment by the russian prison administration: artificial lighting day and night, which deprives prisoners of any darkness, and the daily broadcast of deafening sounds that cause pain in the ears. The Ukrainian journalist compares these methods to those used by the Gestapo, the political police of the Nazi regime.
Pina Picierno responded on July 18 in a post on X-Twitter, expressing her “deep concern.” She said she was actively working “to find a solution that will guarantee justice for Iryna.”
“Psychological torture, lack of medical care, geographical isolation: in russia, the conditions of detention created by the Kremlin are designed to break the resistance of Ukrainian journalists. RSF has already documented this in the case of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriya Roshchina, who died in a Kremlin prison. Iryna Danylovych has been unjustly detained for more than three years and has been deported from Crimea to russia for almost two years. She must be released, and the EU must continue its efforts to free all Ukrainian journalists still in detention,” said Pauline Maufrais, RSF’s regional manager for Ukraine.
Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners
Since her imprisonment in russia almost two years ago, Iryna Danylovych has been relentlessly denouncing the inhuman and degrading conditions of her detention: the almost complete lack of medical care, the inability to receive medication sent by her family despite her poor health, and the long hours spent in the rain and cold.
A nurse by profession, the Ukrainian journalist rose to prominence working as a correspondent for Krym.Realii, the local bureau of the American service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and the news website INJIR Media. Held in custody since April 2022, she was sentenced to seven years in prison on trumped-up charges of “illegal manufacture, transportation, or storage of explosives.”
RSF has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Kremlin for deporting Ukrainian journalists from occupied Ukrainian territories to its territory.
28 Ukrainian journalists behind bars
Twenty-eight Ukrainian journalists are still in russian prisons, and only the Crimean correspondent for Radio Liberty, the Ukrainian service of RFE/RL, which was threatened with closure, Vladyslav Yesypenko, was recently released after serving an unjust sentence.
Ukraine and russia rank 62nd and 171st respectively out of 180 countries and territories in RSF’s 2025 World Press Freedom Index.
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