“Free The Voices”: NUJU documentary on detained Ukrainian journalists debuts internationally in Brussels

At least 28 Ukrainian journalists are currently held in Russian captivity or considered missing. They, and the question of how to compel the international community to act, were at the centre of discussions held at the Brussels Press Club during the first international screening of the NUJU documentary “Free the Voices.”

The event was organised by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine in partnership with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the Brussels Press Club, and the NGO Civilni Vilni, with financial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD).

The opening remarks were delivered by Daria Kyryliuk, Government Relations Officer at the International Commission on Missing Persons.

A panel discussion followed the screening, with:

— Lina Kushch, First Secretary of the Natiinal Union of Journalists of Ukraine

— Ricardo Gutiérrez, General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists

— Olena Tsyhipa, wife of unlawfully detained journalist Serhii Tsyhipa

Members of Serhii Tsyhipa’s family also attended the screening: his mother Velyna and grandson Maksym, who relocated from occupied territory and now live in Brussels.

 About the Film

“Free the Voices” was produced by the NUJU team in 2025 with the support of ICMP, drawing on more than 15 hours of interviews, a significant portion of which is being made public for the first time. The film reconstructs the circumstances of unlawful detentions, maps a concealed network of Russian detention facilities, and follows both journalists who have been released and those who remain behind bars or have died in custody. The Ukrainian premiere took place in Kyiv in October 2025. Brussels marks its first international screening.

The scale of the problem

According to verified NUJU data, at least 28 Ukrainian media workers are currently missing or held in captivity, and at least 135 colleagues have been killed since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. Journalists are targeted precisely because they continue to report the truth in places where Russia works to suppress evidence of its crimes.

Russia fabricates charges of “espionage,” “terrorism,” or “state treason” under its own legislation, applying them to Ukrainian citizens on Ukrainian territory. Once reclassified as “criminals,” detainees lose the protections afforded under international humanitarian law, and any path to release becomes significantly harder.

One of the most tragic cases is that of investigative journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died in Russian custody in 2024 with extensive signs of torture on her body. Ukraine has classified her death as a war crime. For more than a year, her family and colleagues had no information about her whereabouts. The case of Anastasiia Hlukhovska, a journalist from Melitopol detained in August 2023, follows the same pattern: for nearly two years, Russia has neither confirmed her arrest nor disclosed her location, nor has it brought any charges.

Without reliable updates, legal assistance, or psychological support, the families of missing journalists are left in an information vacuum, spending their own money on lawyers, parcels, and correspondence for years on end. The most effective instrument remains sustained international pressure, as demonstrated by the releases of journalists Vladyslav Yesypenko and Dmytro Khyliuk, both of whom appear in the film.

“We must never forget these journalists”

This is the guiding principle of the European Federation of Journalists on the issue of detained Ukrainian media workers, as articulated by EFJ General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez. The testimonies gathered in the NUJU documentary are, in his view, a direct counter to Russia’s strategy: “They want us to forget about these journalists. They do everything they can to hide them, to make them disappear. That is precisely why giving them a voice matters so much.”

He acknowledged that European institutions tend to agree with the arguments put forward on behalf of unlawfully detained journalists, yet rarely act without delay. Sustained pressure, he said, remains essential. Gutiérrez confirmed that the EFJ will vote on a declaration in support of unlawfully detained Ukrainian journalists at its annual gathering in Ankara in June, as it did in Budapest the year before.

“Documenting these cases and producing materials – that is exactly what NUJU has done with this film. We are not politicians. We are journalists. So let us do what we do best: tell the truth,” the EFJ General Secretary added.

“European institutions must recognise a system of pressure and torture behind each individual case”

NUJU First Secretary Lina Kushch, who moderated the discussion, explained why individual stories carry systemic significance: “They reveal a pattern: human rights violations repeating from case to case, and the role of the Russian state in building and sustaining this machinery.”

In her view, this is an extraordinarily complex problem that no amount of advocacy alone can resolve, because no formal international mechanism yet exists that is capable of securing the release of civilian journalists. Unlike prisoners of war, civilian media workers cannot be included in exchange lists. “We are trying to open a conversation about the possibility of such a mechanism, about joint effort. The question is how European institutions can align their efforts to secure the release of Ukrainian journalists,” Kushch said.

She outlined three priorities for international support:

• legal documentation and analysis of every individual violation;
• financial and practical assistance for families who have been waiting for years and bearing the cost of lawyers and correspondence;
• use of both official and informal channels to bring specific cases to the attention of decision-makers.

From Kyiv to Brussels: a year of sustained effort

NUJU has been consistent in keeping the international community focused on the issue of Ukrainian journalists in captivity. The Brussels screening is the result of a long and deliberate process.

The Kyiv premiere of “Free the Voices” took place in October 2025 to an audience of diplomats, journalists, human rights defenders, international organisations, and the families of detainees. Dmytro Khyliuk, a UNIAN journalist who survived Russian captivity and is one of the film’s subjects, said after the Kyiv screening: “I never imagined the efforts to bring me back would reach such a scale. It was a welcome shock, to feel that you had not been forgotten.”

NUJU continues to coordinate this work with international partners. In the days before the Brussels screening, the European Federation of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists supported NUJU’s solidarity campaign for unlawfully detained Ukrainian media workers by publishing the story of Iryna Levchenko, a journalist from Melitopol. The campaign’s core message: journalism is not a crime, and all unlawfully detained journalists must be released immediately.

“I ask you to become a voice for those forced to stay silent”

Olena Tsyhipa, the wife of journalist Serhii Tsyhipa from Nova Kakhovka, held at a penal colony in Skopin, Ryazan Oblast since March 2022, described what waiting looks like from the inside.

During the first nine months after his detention, Olena had no information about Serhii whatsoever. An official inquiry to the authorities in Simferopol went unanswered. Only after an advocacy tour, including appearances at the OSCE conference in Warsaw and at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, did human rights lawyers locate an attorney in Crimea willing to represent Serhii. Contact became possible only after his sentencing, through a paid Russian application called “Zona Telekom,” where every letter is subject to strict censorship.

“I consider myself one of the fortunate wives because I know where my husband is, and from time to time I receive letters from him,” Olena said. “But when I compare my situation to that of women and families who have gone years without any information about their loved ones, I realise how much more difficult their ordeal is.”

According to Olena, Serhii was targeted by Russian forces because his reporting dismantled one of the central Russian myths: the idea of “protecting Russian-speaking civilians.” He showed the residents of Nova Kakhovka and Kherson Oblast that there was nothing to fear, and that the shame belonged to the occupiers.

“I am an ordinary woman, but I had to be strong in order to bring together other women searching for their loved ones. I had to cross borders, knock on your doors, knock on your hearts,” Olena said, addressing the audience. “I ask you to speak about what you heard and saw today. I ask you to become a voice for those forced to remain silent behind Russian bars. Only through joint international effort will we be able to compel Russia to return our civilian citizens.”

Over the years of her husband’s detention, Olena independently organised two international advocacy tours and became an activist with the NGO Civilni Vilni, founded in December 2022, which now has around 400 members.

Serhii’s mother, Velyna Tsyhipa, who has had no contact with her son since the day of his detention, addressed the ICMP representatives directly, asking them not to stop their work and to make every effort to bring Serhii and other Ukrainians home.

ICMP’s Daria Kyryliuk called on everyone present to think about concrete steps they could personally take: “I want you to leave here knowing what actions are needed, and to carry that awareness back into your communities.”

A press club open to Ukraine

The Brussels Press Club has supported Ukrainian journalism since the first days of the full-scale invasion. In March 2022, together with press clubs in Paris, Geneva, and Warsaw, it launched the “We Are Kyiv Press Club” initiative, opening its doors to Ukrainian journalists who had been forced to flee their homes. In his opening remarks at the screening, Brussels Press Club Executive Director Laurent Brihay recalled that shortly after the full-scale war began, an ambassador from a former Soviet republic approached him and asked that the “We Are Kyiv Press Club” sign be removed from the facade ahead of a planned press conference.

“We said we stand with our friends,” Brihay noted. “The Kyiv Press Club sign is staying.”

What the international community can do

NUJU and its partners are calling on European institutions to strengthen targeted sanctions against individuals directly responsible for unlawful detentions, to provide legal expertise for documenting each case as a human rights violation, and to offer financial and psychological support to the families of those detained.

Equally important is the need to use both official and informal channels to bring individual cases to the attention of decision-makers; to place the issue firmly on the agenda of international media freedom forums; to advance efforts toward establishing an international mechanism for the release of civilian hostages; and to secure recognition of the enforced disappearances and detention of Ukrainian journalists as a systematic policy of the aggressor state rather than a series of isolated incidents.

Spread the word

To draw attention to the issue of illegally detained journalists, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine plans to organize the film screenings in other European countries.

If your organisation would like to host a screening or learn more about the project, please contact Lina Kushch, First Secretary of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine: [email protected].

Further information about the documentary is available here.

About the organisers

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) is the largest professional organisation of media workers in Ukraine. It actively supports journalists in conflict zones, providing protective equipment, safety training, and psychological assistance, and advocates for press freedom at both national and international levels.

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) is an intergovernmental organisation that assists governments and other authorities in determining the fate of missing persons and upholds the right of families to know what happened to their loved ones.

*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.

Valeriia Muskharina, NUJU Information Service