“Sharper than physical pain – the feeling of helplessness”: speech of the imprisoned journalist
On November 3, 2025, in Prague, Tetyana Pechonchyk, head of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, accepted the award on behalf of Iryna Danylovych and delivered her speech. ZMINA published the text of that speech.
A framed certificate featuring a black-and-white portrait photo lies beside a bouquet of pink roses and purple chrysanthemums. The certificate reads “International Stories of Injustice Award 2023” and is dedicated to Crimean civic journalist Iryna DanylovychEvery moment I feel pain. Physical, aching, unbearable pain. Every sharp sound is like a hammer blow straight to the brain. No treatment. No chance that it will pass anytime soon. Unless a new stroke simply kills me, and it will all finally end.
But even more acute than physical pain is the feeling of helplessness. Both my own and that of the entire free world.
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Not so long ago, there were times when encroachments on freedom of speech, on the right to express one’s own thoughts, seemed unlikely. And now in Crimea, not an extra word can be heard. Not so long ago, there were times when people were abducted, resulting in spontaneous mass protests. And now it has become something ordinary that does not even surprise anyone. Once, not so long ago, it was difficult to imagine that mothers would be taken away from their babies in order to fulfil a plan to combat terrorists or spies. Now, in Crimea alone, there are dozens of such cases.
In December 2022, the illegitimate “court” in temporarily occupied Feodosia sentenced Danylovych to seven years in a penal colony and a fine of 50,000 RUR on fabricated charges of “storing explosives”What next? Execution cellars? Gas chambers? It is difficult to imagine now. Just as it once seemed impossible to imagine the suppression of independent voices, daily abductions, torture, and mass fabrication of criminal cases against women.
And what is the response? Concern, then deep concern, then strong condemnation and, at the same time, calls to “be realistic”. That is, to forget and abandon millions of people who have been taken hostage by blatant and unpunished maniacs. To pretend that this is the right decision.
Difficult times require decisive action, not concern. The united position of the European community can change the cynical rhetoric that promotes the idea of closing our eyes and pretending that everything is fine. I urge you not to be “realistic”, but to demand more.
Despite the unbearable pain, yours,
Iryna Danylovych
Iryna Danylovych, citizen journalist, activist from the temporarily occupied Crimea, political prisoner
