Let's save Anastasia Hloukhovska and the 48 other journalists detained by Russia
- Signataires diverses
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
Opinion piece published in Le Monde on 18 November 2025, under the title « Des dizaines de journalistes ukrainiens et russes croupissent dans les geôles du Kremlin : ils doivent être libérés »
Alarming information has reached us regarding the situation of Ukrainian journalist Anastasia Hloukhovska, originally from Melitopol, a Ukrainian city occupied by Russia since 2022. We have had no news of her for more than two years. She is being held by Russia in an unknown place of detention, without charge or even confirmation of her imprisonment by the Kremlin. She has been swallowed up by the Russian prison system. Her colleagues and family are searching for her tirelessly.
On August 20, 2023, Russian FSB agents broke into her apartment, seized all her documents, computers, and phone, and took her to an unknown destination. She is one of seven journalists and media professionals working for local Telegram channels, RIA-Melitopol and Melitopol is Ukraine, who were arrested that day by Russian occupation forces in Melitopol. All remain in detention.
Torture chambers for Anastasia Hloukhovska and the detained journalists
Since then, the Russian Federation authorities have been holding Anastasia Hloukhovska prisoner. A recent investigation by the Ukrainian investigative media outlet Slidstvo.info reveals that after being detained in Melitopol, she was incarcerated in Taganrog prison, infamous for having been turned into a torture chamber for thousands of Ukrainian prisoners. She is currently believed to be in the sinister Prison No. 3 in Kizel, in the Perm Territory of Russia, more than 2,700 km from Melitopol.
It is in this facility that the mayor of Dnipro-Roudny, Yevhen Matveyev, is being held, and where another Ukrainian journalist, Viktoria Rochtchyna, was allegedly tortured and murdered in September 2024, after also being imprisoned in Taganrog. Former prisoner of war Yevhen Sholudko confirms Hloukhovska's presence in Kizel prison, described by former Ukrainian prisoners as a “torture camp.”
We are concerned about the dramatic situation in which this journalist finds herself, subjected to multiple abuses and deprivations. Reporters Without Borders has repeatedly contacted the Russian authorities, the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, and the prison authorities in Kizel to obtain news of Anastasia and her detained colleagues. No response has been received to date.
Amidst a sea of arbitrary detentions, documented systematic torture, mass deportations of children, and summary executions of civilians and military personnel, Anastasia Hloukhovska stands out among thousands of sadly anonymous victims as one of the symbols of the oppression and unprecedented violence suffered by the Ukrainian people. Twenty-six Ukrainian journalists are languishing in Kremlin prisons, some for nearly ten years. They must be released.
Let us not allow silence or complicity to engulf the name of Anastasia, like those of the 25 other Ukrainian reporters and 23 Russian journalists detained by Russia. Today, our only hope of seeing Anastasia alive again lies in the intervention of the Minister of Foreign Affairs [Jean-Noël Barrot] and the High Representative of the European Union [Kaja Kallas] with Moscow to secure the immediate release of Anastasia and the 48 other journalists currently detained in Russian prisons.
Signatories
Opinion piece by:
Galia Ackerman, Historian, Editor-in-chief of Desk Russie
Thibaut Bruttin, Executive Director of Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Ricardo Gutierrez, Secretary General of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
Nikolay Koblyakov, President of the Russia-Libertés Association
André Lange, Co-founder and Coordinator of the Diderot Committee
Nathalie Loiseau, Member of the European Parliament
Claude Malhuret, Senator
Olessandra Matviichuk, Director of the NGO Centre for Civil Liberties, Nobel Peace Prize winner 2022
Oxana Melnychuk, Chairperson of the United for Ukraine Association
Natalia Pouzyreff, Chair of the France-Ukraine Friendship Group at the National Assembly
Pierre Raiman, Vice-President and co-founder of the association For Ukraine, for their freedom and ours!
Nadia Sollogoub, Senator for Nièvre, Chair of the France-Ukraine Friendship Group in the Senate
Brigitte Stora, Author, Essayist
First signatories
Jean-Pierre Andrevon, Writer
Gilles Antonowicz, Honorary Lawyer, Historian
François. Béchieau, National Secretary of the Progressive Movement, Councillor for Paris
Christian Castagna, Advocacy Officer
Maïté Coppey, INSERM Emeritus Research Director
Didier Coureau, University Professor in film studies, University of Grenoble Alpes
Cathie Dambel, Director
Jean-Marc Dreyfus, Historian
Elvira Férault, Curatorial Assistant
Jean-Louis Fournel, University Professor
Georges Hanne, Senior Lecturer in History
Florence Hartmann, Author, Former Journalist
Thierry Hugot, International Civil Servant
Olivier Jankovic, Coach/Trainer, Adapter, Actor
Luba Jurgenson, University Professor
Konstantin Kaiser, Researcher on Exile, Writer, Editor, www.zwischenwelt.net, Austria
Jacques Larrieu, professor Emeritus
Karol Luczka, Journalist, NGO, Poland
Aline Le Bail-Kremer, Journalist
Sylvie Lindeperg, Historian, University Professor
Godefroy de Maupeou, Director
Alexis Nuselovici, Professor Emeritus
Marc Pondaven, Honorary Journalist H8001
Alain Rabatel, Professor Emeritus of Language Sciences, Claude Bernard University Lyon 1
Natacha Rajakovic, Political Scientist, Specialist in International Relations and Communications Expert
Sylvie Rollet, Professor Emeritus, President of For Ukraine, for their freedom and ours!
Ingrid Rose, Paper Conservator, USA
Pierre Schapira, Professor Emeritus, Sorbonne University
Konstantin Sigov, Ukrainian Philosopher
André Sirota, Professor Emeritus of Clinical Social Psychopathology
Brigitte Stora, Author
Nicolas Tenzer, Lecturer at Sciences Po, author of Notre Guerre. Crime and Oblivion
Cécile Vaissié, University Professor of Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet studies
Emmanuel Wallon, Professor Emeritus of Political Sociology
Associations
Vera Ammer, Translator; Member of MEMORIAL Germany
Nataliya Batarina, Collegiate Administrator of the Volya Association
Annick Bilobran Karmazyn, Chairperson of Advule
Mykola Cuzin, Chairman of the Ukraine 33 Committee
Henri David, President of ARASFEC UNITED FOR UKRAINE
Anne Marleix, Chairperson of Terra Project
Florent Murer, President of the Kalyna Association
Jean-Pierre Pasternak, President of the Union of Ukrainians in France
David Sanchez, President of the FFUP Association
Citizens' signatures:
List updated on 20 November 2025, 15:00 UTC +1.
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