Investigating Crimes Against Ukrainian Journalists
NGOs and prosecutors log hundreds of cases of aggression, intimidation and attacks on media workers.
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Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna was seized by Russian security agents at a checkpoint as she attempted to reach the blockaded city of Mariupol in March 2022. She was accused of espionage and held for ten days before being exchanged for Russian POWs.
After her release, Roshchyna recounted how the Russians had threatened her.
“’If we bury you somewhere here, no one will ever know and no one will ever find you,’ the Russians repeatedly emphasised,” she later wrote. “I wasn’t afraid - I understood these were just their usual intimidation tactics.”
Undeterred, Roshchyna continued reporting from the occupied territories. In summer 2023, she set out on another trip, only to vanish in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region. For over a year, Viktoriia's family had no information about her whereabouts or condition, before being allowed one phone call with her in August 2024.
In October 2024, the journalist’s father received a notification from the Russian ministry of defence reporting that she had died the previous month. Her body has not been returned by the Russians.
Roshchyna’s death is one of numerous cases of attacks on media workers that the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office are investigating as war crimes.
Since the full-scale invasion began, Ukraine has initiated pre-trial investigations in more than 120 criminal cases concerning Russia’s physical aggression against journalists.
A dozen Russians have been charged with related crimes, including Aleksey Kim, a general accused of ordering an Iskander missile strike on a Reuters crew filming in Kramatorsk on August 24, 2024 in which one journalist was killed and five others injured.
“From the very early days of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian and international journalists have been targeted by Russian occupiers. We are closely monitoring the situation and can confirm this with certainty,” said Pauline Maufrais, head of the Ukrainian programme at Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
A major issue facing both campaigners and the justice system is the lack of access to gather evidence.
“In all these cases,” Maufrais continued, “the greatest challenge is access to information - or rather, the lack of it.”
The work of NGOs in raising awareness, collecting evidence and demanding accountability was also key, she continued.
“The office of the prosecutor general has ultimately initiated at least 14 pre-trial investigations in cases for which we submitted complaints to the International Criminal Court, as well as the Ukrainian and French prosecutors' offices,” she said.
The Institute of Mass Information (IMI), a Ukrainian NGO that defends journalists’ rights, has recorded 807 crimes against the media since February 24, 2022. These include physical assaults, the seizure of newsrooms and shelling of television towers.
According to the IMI, 96 media workers have been killed since the full-scale invasion, including 12 while on assignment. A further 30 journalists remain held hostage by the Russian side, with the exact location of some still unknown.
Kateryna Diachuk, head of the freedom of speech monitoring department at IMI, stressed that international pressure was key for both access to detained media workers and justice for crimes against them.
"We can publicly apply pressure, run campaigns and involve diplomats,” she continued. “For instance, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is set to introduce a resolution in March regarding Ukrainian journalists held captive. I hope they will take our recommendations into account and that the issue of ICRC access to the hostages will finally gain traction.”
“Journalists have the same protection and special status as civilians,” said Andrii Yakovlev, a lawyer at the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR).
“What we see now is that civilians are being held in captivity, but this is not called "prisoner of war" status—it is classified as places of deprivation of liberty,” Yakovlev noted. “Since civilians cannot be lawfully detained under international law, there is also no established mechanism for their return.”
Under Occupation
Journalists in territories occupied by Russia face particular challenges, often unlawfully detained accused of crimes including terrorism or espionage as a way to pressurise and intimidate them.
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office is investigating several criminal cases related to the abduction of local reporters in Melitopol, an occupied city in the Zaporizhzhia region.
From the early days of the city’s capture, Russians began unlawfully detaining Ukrainian media workers. In March 2022, they arrested a swathe of employees from the Melitopolskie Vesti outlet, detaining the founder of the popular @Mitopol Telegram channel, Yevhen Ilchenko, in July.
The following month, journalist Anastasiia Hlukhovska was among a number of contributors to the Telegram news channels RIA-Melitopol and Melitopol Is Ukraine who were arrested.
It was not until May that the Russians released footage her handcuffed and being led out of her apartment; there has been no official confirmation of her whereabouts since August 2023.
Her sister Diana, who last spoke to her the day before she was abducted, said that the family’s search for answers had been fruitless.
“When you turn to ‘official’ institutions in these temporarily occupied territories, you’ll never be told the truth,” she said. “Our ‘police’ merely record the crime, while the Red Cross, the UN and Reporters Without Borders bring the issue to public attention.”
Yakovlev warned that accountability remained a major obstacle in ensuring justice for journalists, as for others.
He continued, “International humanitarian law consists of rules of conduct that, in theory, provide protection. However, these norms lack enforcement mechanisms. When we say that a journalist has been unlawfully detained or attacked, yes, this constitutes a violation. But how do we not only investigate such violations but also hold perpetrators accountable and enforce sentences?”
Although he identified three possible avenues - prosecution at the national level, international tribunals, or courts with universal jurisdiction – Yakovlev said it was important to acknowledge the lack of any universal legal framework for enforcing sentences.
“This means that someone carrying out an attack on a journalist will understand that, yes, the punishment is severe, but the likelihood of being caught is low. They will know that they can safely stay in the UAE, for example, rather than in Ukraine or the EU. International law grants rights but lacks mechanisms for their protection and enforcement. It is like having a criminal code without courts or police.”
