Anastasiia Hlukhovska is a Ukrainian journalist who was kidnapped by officers from Russia's Federal Safety Service (FSB) in occupied Melitopol in August 2023. She has been illegally held in Russian custody for greater than two years with none official costs being introduced and even an acknowledgement of her detention.

Supply: an investigation by Slidstvo.Information, an unbiased workforce of investigative journalists

Particulars: The Slidstvo.Information editorial workforce has obtained official responses from a Russian investigative committee and the FSB. Each companies declare that they "didn’t detain" Hlukhovska and "haven’t any details about her whereabouts".

Nonetheless, the journalists discovered a witness who confirmed that Hlukhovska is being held in detention centre No. 3 in Kizel in Russia's Perm Krai, the place different Ukrainian prisoners, together with Dniprorudne Mayor Yevhen Matvieiev and journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, have died.

In keeping with testimonies from former inmates, Hlukhovska was tortured in a makeshift detention web site within the basement of an organization named Ruslan-komplekt in occupied Melitopol. One former prisoner, Olena, mentioned she had heard Hlukhovska screaming and seen the results of electrical shock torture.

"A guard got here and mentioned: 'Olena, please take care of Nastia. If she feels unwell, knock.' That's what he mentioned," the witness recalled.

Hlukhovska was later moved – first to detention centre No. 2 in Taganrog, Russia, after which to Kizel.

In keeping with Slidstvo.Information sources in legislation enforcement, the journalist was moved to Kizel on 30 August 2024.

"We have been delivered to Kizel on the finish of November or early December. I fell sick," former prisoner of warfare Yevhenii Sholudko advised Slidstvo.Information. "As quickly as we awoke, they'd play the [Russian] nationwide anthem. It began taking part in, and I fainted for the primary time in 28 years. Later I used to be taken to a physician and had a chest X-ray. It turned out I had both a lung an infection or pneumonia. They took me to hospital for some injections. I used to be standing ready for my flip once I heard Nastia's surname."

Reporters With out Borders have confirmed that Hlukhovska is being held incommunicado – with no official acknowledgment of her arrest – that means that Russia is successfully concealing her existence.

The opposite Melitopol journalists who have been detained together with Hlukhovska have already been sentenced: Heorhii Levchenko acquired 16 years in jail, and Vladyslav Hershon 15 years.

Regardless of having spent greater than two years in captivity, Anastasiia Hlukhovska has nonetheless not been formally charged with any crime.

Learn extra: The Viktoriia Project: the story of the captivity and torture endured by journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna and thousands of Ukrainians imprisoned by Russia

Background:

• In March 2022, Viktoriia Roshchyna was captured by Russian forces and held for 10 days within the briefly occupied metropolis of Berdiansk.
• In 2022, Roshchyna wrote a collection of articles for Ukrainska Pravda from the briefly occupied territories. Her work included tales about life in occupied Crimea in the course of the warfare, the sham referendum in occupied Donetsk Oblast, and a photograph report from the devastated metropolis of Mariupol.
• On 25 July 2023, Roshchyna left Ukraine for Poland, planning to make the three-day journey through Russia to the occupied a part of Ukraine's east.
• On 3 August 2023, Roshchyna went lacking in Russian-occupied territory.
• It was not till Might 2024 that Russia admitted to having detained Roshchyna. The Russian Ministry of Defence despatched a letter confirming this to her father, Volodymyr Roshchyn.
• Russia delayed the repatriation of Roshchyna's physique, which was solely returned in February 2025.
• The Workplace of the Prosecutor Normal reported that Roshchyna's physique bore a number of indicators of torture and ill-treatment: abrasions, bruises, a damaged rib and proof of electrocution.
• The investigative workforce conducting the inquiry confirmed that the physique was introduced again to Ukraine after an post-mortem performed in Russia. Journalists realized from legislation enforcement sources that the physique was lacking a number of inner organs – the mind, the eyeballs and a part of the trachea. A global forensic pathologist believes this may occasionally have been an try to hide the true explanation for loss of life, together with potential suffocation.
• Viktoria's funeral was held in Kyiv on 8 August.

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