Retired Ukrainian journalist Iryna Levchenko, 65, was sentenced to 15 years in jail on charges of “espionage” by a Russian-controlled court in September 2026.
The Zaporizhzhia Regional Court posted the verdict on its Telegram channel on September 4. It named the accused only as “L., born in 1961” but Levchenko could be identified in the accompanying footage.
Levchenko, a retired journalist from the southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol, was detained by Russian forces in May 2023 along with her husband, Oleksandr. She had previously worked for several Ukrainian media outlets, including Noviy Den, Mltpl.City, and Fakty i Kommentarii, but had left journalism in February 2022 after Melitopol was occupied.
Her husband was released in August 2024, while Levchenko has remained in Russian custody.
It is not yet known whether the 3.5 years Levchenko has already spent in Russian pretrial detention will count toward her sentence.
Levchenko’s family, who have endured years of uncertainty over her whereabouts and condition, said the verdict left them in despair.
“Fifteen years behind bars at that age in Russian prisons – what is this if not a hidden death sentence? In 15 years she will be 80. If there is no exchange, I am afraid to say this…. Her family will never see her again,” Levchenko´s sister Olena Rudenko told the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU).
Sergiy Tomilenko, president of NUJU, called for Levchenko’s release, and said the sentence was illegal.
Russian authorities have repeatedly detained journalists in Ukraine since first occupying Crimea in 2014.
In March 2026, CPJ urged the U.S. Congress and the Trump administration to prioritize the release of Ukrainian journalists detained by Russia, including Levchenko and Anastasiya Glukhovska, who was also detained in 2023.
Case history
In early May 2023, Russian forces detained Levchenko and Oleksandr in Melitopol, according to media reports and reports by the Institute of Mass Information, a local press freedom group, and NUJU. Levchenko’s relatives lost contact with her on May 5 and asked not to publicize her detention until May 30, as they hoped she and her husband would be released, those reports said.
In July 2024, Novini Pryazovia, an outlet covering news in the south of Ukraine, aired an interview with Iryna Levchenko’s sister, Olena Rudenko, who said that she was being held in a detention center in Melitopol. “Russia does not confirm that the Levchenko spouses are in captivity, so they have the status of missing persons,” Rudenko said.
According to NUJU’s regional branch of Zaporizhzhia, which includes Melitopol, the pair were held in “inhumane conditions, almost without food, in a cold basement, on a concrete floor,” and were “subjected to physical and psychological torture.”
In December 2025, Ukrainian human rights group Zmina reported that Levchenko was being held in pretrial detention center No. 1 in Donetsk.
On December 29, 2025, RIA-Pivden reported that Levchenko had been transferred from Donetsk to a pretrial detention center in Simferopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea.
On June 26, 2026, RIA-Pivden reported that Levchenko was recently transferred from Simferopol to the southwestern Russian city of Krasnodar.
On July 3, Rudenko told NUJU that Levchenko was awaiting transfer to the southwestern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don but it was not clear whether she was ever taken there.
Rudenko told CPJ via NUJU on August 20 that the last letter from her sister was dated July 27, 2026.
“We wrote to her but there has been no response. She should be in Donetsk now. We have no information about the court proceedings. I personally have no contact with her lawyer,” she said.
Rudenko previously said that Levchenko’s family had not been shown any official documents about the charges levelled against her.
In late 2024, CPJ emailed the branch in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia of the Russian federal penitentiary service and the press service of the Russian prosecutor general’s office but did not receive any replies.
In January 2026, CPJ emailed the pretrial detention center in Simferopol, but did not immediately receive a reply.
After Levchenko’s sentencing, CPJ emailed the Russian-installed Prosecutor’s Office of the Zaporizhzhia region for a comment but did not receive a reply.