Occupiers sentence administrators of Telegram chat Melitopol is Ukraine to 26 years in prison

These are 35-year-old Denys Hlushchenko and 26-year-old Oleksandr Malyshev. Russia accuses them of ‘terrorist attack’, participation in a ‘terrorist group’ and ‘espionage’, – informs RIA Pivden.

They were arrested back in August 2023. In fact, they administered a pro-Ukrainian chat, where they helped people find medicine, food and other necessary things. The occupiers stated that they were allegedly “aiming missiles” at the building of the Melitopol college, where the FSB service was located at that time.

Denys Hlushchenko and Oleksandr Malyshev were convicted as ‘ringleaders’ and sentenced to 26 years in a strict regime colony.

Previously, other kidnapped journalists and administrators received long sentences:

– Yana Suvorova — 14 years (at the time of the kidnapping she was only 19 years old),

– Heorhii Levchenko — 16 years for ‘high treason’,

– Vladyslav Hershon and Maksym Rupchev — 15 years each.

Mark Kaliush, also an administrator of the channel, survived torture and a psychiatric hospital and was returned during the exchange.

Anastasiya Hlukhovska, who worked with the RIA Melitopol team before the full-scale operation, is still in captivity — her case is classified, and in three years the occupiers have never brought any official charges.