Media worker from Melitopol Heorhii Levchenko may be held in a detention facility in Russia’s Altai Krai
Heorhii Levchenko, a media worker from Melitopol sentenced by a Russian court to 16 years in a strict-regime penal colony, may be held in a detention facility in the village of Mayma, in the Mayminsky District of Russia’s Altai Krai. His exact whereabouts remain unconfirmed, Svitlana Zalizetska, editor-in-chief of RIA-Pivden, told RFI.
Heorhii Levchenko. Screenshot from a Russian media outletHeorhii Levchenko was the administrator of the Ukrainian Telegram channel “RIA Melitopol”. Russian security forces abducted him on 20 August 2023 during a mass round-up of media workers in Melitopol and administrators of Ukrainian online media platforms.
After his detention, he was initially held in Melitopol before being transferred to the Mariupol pre-trial detention centre. According to RIA-Pivden, before that transfer, Levchenko was held in the so-called “garages”, where he was subjected to electric shocks during interrogation. He was later transferred to Russia.
On 2 September 2025, the Russian-installed Zaporizhzhia Regional Court sentenced him to 16 years in a strict-regime penal colony for “treason” and “public calls for extremist activity online”.
“Our team lost contact with Heorhii after the trial. For a long time, we did not know where he had been transferred. We recently received information, which has yet to be confirmed, that he may be in the village of Mayma, in the Mayminsky District of Altai Krai, where both a strict-regime penal colony and a settlement colony are located. We cannot say for certain that Heorhii is actually there. Finding him is also difficult because all his relatives remain in temporarily occupied territory, which severely limits our ability to obtain reliable information about his whereabouts”, Zalizetska said.
ZMINA is currently unable to confirm which facility Levchenko may be held in.
On 2 September 2025, a Russian-controlled court sentenced the 36-year-old administrator of a Ukrainian Telegram channel, to 16 years in a strict-regime penal colony, followed by a further year of restrictions on his liberty under police supervision. He was accused of treason and “public calls for extremist activity” online.
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ZMINA previously reported that Reporters Without Borders had stated the whereabouts of Heorhii Levchenko, a Ukrainian journalist and political prisoner held by Russia, remained unknown following his trial.
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