Ukraine: RSF obtains exclusive testimony on the fate of journalist and Russian captive Dmytro Khyliuk
Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Khyliuk — arrested in March 2022 — is still being held in the Vladimir region of Russia, according to a man that spent a year sharing Khyliuk’s prison cell. Khyliuk’s former cellmate spoke to RSF at length about the horrific conditions inflicted on the innocent reporter and his co-inmates.
“When I came back to Ukraine, I saw his photo and I can tell you he doesn't look like that at all.” Ihor, a Ukrainian prisoner of war released in May 2024, survived an excruciating year behind Russian bars alongside a cellmate who became his friend: journalist Dmytro Khyliuk. For almost a year, the two men shared cell number 8 of the IK-7 penal colony in Pakino, a settlement located in the Vladimir region, a few hundred kilometers east of Moscow. The journalist is still imprisoned there.
Food deprivation, beatings, forced propaganda sessions — Ihor provided RSF with a chilling account of the conditions that some fifteen Ukrainians, both civilians and military personnel, have endured in this cell. Ihor described how he and his companions were forced to walk naked in the prison yard in the middle of winter at minus 10 degrees Celsius. During inspections, it was not uncommon for the prison guards or the security services (FSB) to let their dogs loose on the prisoners. The Ukranians were regularly forced to sing the Russian anthem, and were often deprived of food. According to Ihor, Khyliuk, like all his fellow inmates. Ihor estimates that Khyliuk probably weighs “no more than 45 kilos” now.
"We were asking Russia for proof of life, and we have obtained — by our own means — new proof of the cruelties inflicted on journalist Dmytro Khyliuk and his fellow prisoners. Not only does Russia continue to lie about his fate, it encourages the degrading, inhuman treatment of prisoners. Hostages held by criminal or terrorist groups in other parts of the world are treated with greater respect and dignity. We call on the Russian authorities to release Khyliuk, and on the Ukrainian authorities to double their efforts to get him out of this hell.
Khyliuk, a journalist with the Ukrainian news agency Unian, was arrested on March 3, 2022 in his village north of the capital, Kyiv, in the midst of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ever since his arrest, RSF has persistently worked to document and reconstruct the path of his captivity, from the cold chambers at the Hostomel airport, near his home, where he was first held for several days; to the Novozybkov pre-trial detention center where he was first incarcerated; to the Pakino penal colony, where he has been detained since May 2023.
On 19 March 19 2024, the Russian authorities finally admitted, after two years of denial, that they were detaining Khyliuk on their territory. Their admission came in the form of a letter signed by the Ministry of Defense and seen by RSF, which insinuated that Khyliuk was considered as much a prisoner of war as the Ukrainian soldiers that they were also holding captive.
A month before RSF obtained this new information about Khyliuk, Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets assured RSF, during a meeting in Kyiv, that the journalist’s case had been raised in discussions with Russian authorities concerning the thousands of Ukrainian civilians captured and imprisoned in Russia and Russian-occupied territories. According to the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR), a Ukrainian NGO that safeguards journalism and human rights, there are at least 4,000 Ukranians currently held captive. These civilians, including Khyliuk, are almost totally excluded from prisoner-of-war swaps, which have increased sharply in recent months.
Russia ranks 162nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2024 World Press Freedom Index. Ukraine ranks 61st.
