THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist of the Tatar-Bashkir service of Radio Liberty, at the international conference on the human dimension of the OSCE in Warsaw, called Warsaw Human Dimension Conference | OSCE called to “do everything possible” to help colleagues arrested by the russian and Belarusian authorities, Radio Liberty reports.
“I keep thinking about my three RFE/RL colleagues. I know exactly what Vlad Yesypenko, Ihor Losyk and Andrii Kuznechyk and their families are going through. My heart goes out to them. Please do everything you can to help them,” said Alsu Kurmasheva, who herself was arrested and convicted in russia.
She reported that Ihor Losyk and Andrii Kuznechyk are in prison in Belarus – Ihor has been held incommunicado since February 2023 – and Krym.Realii freelancer Vladyslav Yesypenko is in russian-controlled Crimea. “He had not seen his family for three years,” Kurmasheva said.
According to her, such events, where former political prisoners, experts, and politicians meet, are “very important.” “They help us understand the full scale of the crisis and look for effective solutions,” the journalist said.
The International Conference on the Human Dimension of the OSCE is taking place in Warsaw from October 1 to 10.
Alsu Kurmasheva spent 288 days in prison in russia. She was accused of spreading “fakes” about the russian army. The reason for the case was the book “No war. Forty russian historians opposing the invasion of Ukraine.” On July 19, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan sentenced her to 6.5 years in prison. On August 1, the journalist was released as part of a mass exchange of prisoners between Western countries, russia and Belarus.
Radio Liberty President Stephen Capus, commenting on the release of journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, said, “This makes us even more determined to secure the freedom of three other Radio Liberty journalists brutally imprisoned in Belarus and the russian-occupied Crimea (we are talking about freelancer Krym.Realii of Vladyslav Yesypenko – KR).”
On March 10, 2021, Vladyslav Yesypenko, a freelancer of Krym.Realii was detained in Crimea. russia accused him of “connections with Ukrainian special services” and “storage and transportation of ammunition.” He was sentenced to five years of imprisonment in a general regime colony and a fine of RUB 110,000. The russian prosecution demanded 11 years of imprisonment for Yesypenko.
Yesypenko himself claims that the russian security forces tortured him, in particular with electricity, in order to obtain evidence.
The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) has repeatedly claimed that Vladyslav Yesypenko was convicted on a falsified charge and demanded his release.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called Yesypenko‘s sentence “politically motivated.”
The U.S. Department of State also condemned Yesypenko‘s verdict, calling it “another example of abuses by the russian occupation authorities in Crimea.”
NUJU Information Service
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