Russian authorities have detained Ukrainian journalist Anastasiya Glukhovska on undisclosed charges since August 20, 2023.
Glukhovska was working as a reporter with RIA-Melitopol, a news website that covers news in Melitopol, a city in Zaporizhzhia region occupied by Russia shortly after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Glukhovska resigned at the start of the Russian occupation, as she understood “from the very beginning” the risks her work entailed, her sister Diana told CPJ.
Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers in Zaporizhzhia also detained Heorhiy Levchenko, the administrator of the Telegram channel associated with RIA-Melitopol, on the same day as Glukhovska, according to the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, a local advocacy and trade group.
Glukhovska’s and Levchenko’s detentions were not made public until late October 2023, when Vesti Nedeli, a program of the Russian state-owned TV channel Rossiya-1, and the Russian defense ministry-affiliated TV channel Zvezda, reported the news. The Zvezda video shows people in military garb and balaclavas searching Glukhovska’s apartment, looking at her laptop, handcuffing her, taking her out of the house, and putting her in a car.
Glukhovska was not named in the video, and her family was unable to get any information about why she was detained or whether she faced any charges, her sister Diana told CPJ in April 2024. “From the first day and until today, we sent requests to everyone, but we did not receive any answers,” she said, adding that the FSB and Russian President Vladimir Putin were among those they had tried to contact.
CPJ did not include Glukhovska in its 2023 prison census because her relatives requested that details of her situation not be published at the time.
On September 2, 2025, a Russian court in Melitopol found Levchenko guilty of high treason and of calling for extremist activity online, on the grounds that he used a Telegram channel to give Ukrainian forces the location of Russian units, and sentenced him to 16 years in a high security penal colony.
Diana told CPJ in late October 2024 that she had information that Glukhovska was “in a relatively normal physical state and, apparently, in a depressed psychological state,” but added that, “despite everything, my sister is holding on and supporting the other prisoners around her.”
In an investigation published on October 21, 2025, Ukrainian media outlet Slidstvo.Info reported that Glukhovska had first been held in Melitopol in a makeshift detention site in the basement of a local company’s building. Olena, a former cellmate of Glukhovska whose identity was otherwise kept anonymous, told Slidstvo.Info that she had heard Glukhovska screaming. “When Nastya was brought to us, she was lying down. And the guard came and said, ‘Olena, please look after Nastya. If she feels unwell, knock on the door,’” she said. Olena said that Glukhovska had asked for heart medication and had told her she had been subjected to electric shock.
Glukhovska was later transferred to pretrial detention center No. 2 in the southwestern Russian city of Taganrog, where Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchina, who was reportedly tortured in Russian captivity, had also been detained. According to Slidstvo.Info, on August 30, 2024, Glukhovska was transferred to Pretrial Detention Center No. 3 in Kizel, in Russia’s Perm Krai administrative territory, where Roshchina died in September 2024. Former prisoner-of-war Yevhenii Sholudko told Slidstvo.Info that he had been brought to the pretrial detention center in Kizel in late November or early December 2024 and was taken to a hospital to receive medical treatment. “I was waiting for my turn and heard Nastya’s name,” he said.
In a letter dated October 13, 2023, and reviewed by Slidstvo.Info, the FSB stated it did not have information about Glukhovska’s whereabouts. In another letter, dated March 7, 2025, reviewed by Slidstvo.Info, the Russian Investigative Committee stated that Glukhosvka had not been detained or criminally charged and that the committee had no information about her whereabouts. In January 2025, Glukhovska’s relatives received a letter from the Red Cross stating that she was detained, without specifying where, according to Slidstvo.Info.
Diana confirmed to CPJ in late September 2025 that Glukhovska was being detained in the Kizel pretrial detention center, but that she had no other information. “There are still no charges against Nastya, and her detention is illegal,” Diana said.
In late October 2025, CPJ emailed Pretrial Detention Center No. 3 in Kizel, but did not receive any reply.