Vladyslav Hershon, Telegram chat administrator, held in solitary confinement at Vladimir Central Prison

Vladyslav Hershon, a 27-year-old media worker from Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia Region (Oblast), sentenced to 15 years in prison in Russia, is currently held in solitary confinement at Vladimir Central Prison, Svitlana Zalizetska, editor-in-chief of RIA-Pivden, told RFI. 

Vladyslav Hershon

Vladyslav Hershon was one of the administrators of the Telegram chat “Melitopol is Ukraine”. Russian security forces detained him in August 2023 during a mass round-up of media workers in Melitopol and administrators of Ukrainian online media platforms.

After his detention, Hershon was initially held in the temporarily occupied Melitopol before being transferred to the Mariupol Pre-trial Detention Centre. There, he shared a cell with Heorhii Levchenko, administrator of the Telegram channel “RIA Melitopol”. Hershon was later transferred to Russia’s Rostov-on-Don and then to Vladimir.

“Vlad is currently held in solitary confinement at Vladimir Central Prison. His lawyer was able to speak to him. According to Nataliia Hershon, Vlad’s mother, he is coping better emotionally and even says he feels better in solitary confinement”, Zalizetska said.

Read more: You sit like a potted plant: you may be watered, or you may ntemporarily occupied territoryot, and then you will wither – journalist Dmytro Khyliuk. A story of captivity and freedom

Zalizetska said Hershon is allowed to read fiction, and his family sends him money to buy essentials from the prison shop. However, he has health problems: during his most recent meeting with his lawyer, he said he was itching all over. Preliminary arrangements have been made for him to receive treatment.

ZMINA previously reported in Ukrainian that the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don had sentenced Hershon to 15 years in prison. Russian authorities accused him of ‘espionage’, ‘participation in a terrorist group’ and ‘carrying out a terrorist attack as part of an organised group, causing substantial property damage’.

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