Russia commits 870 crimes against journalists and media in Ukraine – IMI

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine – and that is 3 years and 10 months – russia has committed 870 crimes against journalists and media. In particular, two crimes against the media and journalists committed by russia were recorded in November and December. These were cases of damage to media newsrooms and judicial pressure on Ukrainian journalists detained by russia.

This was reported by the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) according to the Monitoring of Russian Crimes Against Journalists and Media, which IMI has been conducting since the first day of the russian invasion of Ukraine.

It is noted that in November-December 2025, it became known about the death of two media workers who defended Ukraine. Those include Kostiantyn Shtyfurak, a military man, director, and journalist; he joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the summer of 2022 and served as the commander of the drone unit and Served in the Hell Hornets unit of the 54^th Separate Mechanized Brigade named after Hetman Ivan Mazepa;  and Vasyl Khomko, a former director of the entertainment show Orel i Reshka. Vasyl was killed on October 2, 2025, in battle, covering the group’s departure. He volunteered for the front in March 2022. First served in the 128^th Mountain Assault Brigade for two and a half years, and then for almost a year in the Special Operations Forces.

“Therefore, since the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 121 media workers have died, including 15 while performing their professional duties,” the report says.

IMI also draws attention to the fact that the premises of the Suspilne Zaporizhzhia branch were damaged as a result of russian shelling of the city on the night of November 26. “The team was not injured – at the time of the shelling, no one was in the premises. Part of the building wall is damaged, windows are broken. The team is assessing the damage from the attack,” the IMI report notes.

In addition, a russian court sentenced citizen journalist Vilen Temeriyanov from russian-occupied Crimea to 14 years in prison. He was detained in 2022 at home in the Dzhankoi District of Crimea on trumped-up charges of terrorism.

The full list of violations of freedom of speech can be found at the link.

As earlier reported, as of December 17, 2025, since the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine, the occupiers had killed at least 140 media workers.

Besides, the head of the parliamentary subcommittee on information policy, Yevheniya Kravchuk, announced that she was “opening the door for specialists” to participate in the expert council of the parliamentary temporary investigative commission investigating russian crimes against the media and media workers.

NUJU Information Service