Free The Voices: Documentary Film on the Unlawful Detention of Ukrainian Journalists

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), in partnership with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), the European Federation of Journalists, and the Brussels Press Club, invites you for the special screening of Free The Voices – a documentary film investigating the unlawful detention of Ukrainian journalists by Russia and the ongoing efforts to secure their release.

The film tells the 6 stories of journalists who survived Russian captivity as well as those who have not yet returned. Among the former detainees featured are:

• Vladyslav Yesypenko – freelance journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Crimea.Realities project)
• Dmytro Khyliuk – correspondent for the news agency UNIAN
• Liudmyla Huseinova – citizen journalist, human rights defender, and Chair of the NGO “Numo, Sisters!”
• Nariman Dzhelyal – journalist at the time of his detention, First Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People; since May 2025, Ambassador of Ukraine to Turkey

Free The Voices was created by the NUJU team and first presented in Ukraine, where its earliest audience included journalists who had been released from Russian captivity, as well as family members and colleagues of those still detained. The film brings together facts, many of which are being made public for the first time. To produce the final 40-minute cut, the team recorded 15 hours of interviews.

Following the screening, we invite you to join a panel discussion with:

• A representative of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP)
• Lina Kushch, First Secretary of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine
• Olena Tsyhipa, the wife of illegally detained Ukrainian journalist Sergiy Tsyhipa
• Ricardo Gutiérrez, General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)

Venue: Brussels Press Club, Brussels 

Date: 26 May 2026

Time: 16:00–18:00

Register here: https://forms.gle/rKxqX5Asd6Gp8X997 

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the issue of missing and unlawfully detained persons, including journalists, has become critical. Journalists are frequently targeted for documenting war crimes and reporting the truth from occupied territories. Families of the missing find themselves in an information vacuum, without reliable updates or adequate legal and psychological support. Through research, investigation, and advocacy, Free The Voices aims to draw sustained attention to this issue, support affected families, and contribute to the release of those in captivity.

According to NUJU’s verified data, at least 28 journalists are currently missing or held in detention, and the fate of many remains unknown. Bringing media workers home is a complex and lengthy process, which is why it is essential to keep this issue visible to the public, governments, and international institutions.

Ukrainian journalists are detained for one reason above all: they keep reporting the truth in places Russia wants silenced. Journalists who remain in occupied territories, cover the realities of occupation for local audiences, or document Russian military activity become targets. Russia’s approach follows a deliberate pattern, including fabricating charges of “espionage,” “terrorism,” or “state treason,” often under Russian law applied to Ukrainian citizens on Ukrainian territory. Once reclassified as “criminals,” detainees lose the protections they are entitled to under international humanitarian law, and any path to their release becomes significantly harder.

Anastasiia Hlukhovska is a journalist with RIA Melitopol who chose to stay in the city after Russia seized it in 2022, continuing to report for an audience that had no other source of independent local news. She was detained by FSB officers in August 2023. More than two years later, Russia has not formally acknowledged her arrest, brought any charges, or confirmed Anastasiia’s location, making her impossible to monitor, represent, or include in any prisoner exchange process.

Yana Suvorova was 18 years old when Russian FSB officers broke into her home in occupied Melitopol in the middle of the night and detained her for moderating a community chat created to help residents find food, medicine, and doctors. In October 2025, a Russian military court sentenced her to 14 years in prison on charges of terrorism and espionage. She is currently held at Remand Prison No. 2 in Taganrog — the same facility where Viktoriia Roshchyna was tortured.

Heorhiy Levchenko, her colleague and co-administrator of the RIA Melitopol Telegram channel, was arrested the same night. In September 2025, an occupation court sentenced him to 16 years in a strict-regime penal colony – for continuing to run a Ukrainian-language news channel after the occupation began.

Viktoriia Roshchyna was an investigative journalist who disappeared while reporting in Russian-occupied territory in August 2023. She died in Russian detention in September 2024, aged 27. Her body bore signs of torture. Ukraine has classified her death as a war crime.

These cases reflect a systematic effort to eliminate independent journalism from occupied Ukrainian territories and to silence those who document what Russia does not want the world to see.

Watch the English teaser: Free The Voices 

Teasers are also available in French, German and Italian. 

For details and inquiries, please contact: 

[email protected]: Olena Tsygipa, Project Assistant. 

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About the organizers: 

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) is the largest professional organisation of media workers in Ukraine, actively supporting journalists in conflict zones, providing protective equipment, safety training, and psychological support, and advocating for press freedom nationally and internationally.

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) is an intergovernmental organisation that assists governments and other authorities in accounting for missing persons and supports the rights of families to know the fate of their missing relatives.

This project was made possible by financial support from the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) through the Norwegian Agency for Development and Cooperation – NORAD. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), its donors or participating States.