Ukrainian journalist and former political prisoner Vladyslav Yesypenko calls for coordinated support for Ukrainians in Russian captivity
Following a visit to the Czech Republic for Crimea Days from 17 to 20 September, journalist and former political prisoner Vladyslav Yesypenko wrote a column for the media outlet Shelter detailing the plight of Ukrainian journalists and other civilians unlawfully detained by Russia. He also mentioned journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who was killed by Russians in custody.
Vladyslav Yesypenko. Photo credit: Oleksandra YefymenkoYesypenko highlighted the problems Ukrainian political prisoners face in Russian penal colonies, including the denial of medical care, psychological pressure and prolonged imprisonment. He cited the cases of citizen journalist Iryna Danylovych, who is tortured through exposure to loud music in Russian custody, and Kostiantyn Shyrinh, who died in a Russian prison in 2023.
Yesypenko also spoke about Viktoriia Roshchyna, a Ukrainian journalist detained in August 2023 while visiting territories temporarily occupied by Russia. It later emerged that she was being held in Russian custody. According to the Ukrainian authorities, Roshchyna died on 19 September 2024.
Yesypenko also shared his own experience of persecution. Russian security forces detained him in temporarily occupied Crimea in March 2021. He was convicted on fabricated charges and spent more than four years in Russian captivity before his release on 20 June 2025.
In his speeches in the Czech Republic, he raised the issue of assistance for Ukrainian civilian hostages and political prisoners, stressing the need for sustained, coordinated support for those held in Russian prisons.
Yesypenko called for particular attention to those who have been in captivity the longest, people with serious illnesses and women. He stressed the need to provide prisoners with medication, legal assistance and regular parcels.
The journalist also met with Michal Geisler, a representative of the Czech president, and Karel Dvořák, a Czech parliamentarian. Their discussions covered, among other issues, the Czech Republic’s potential role in mediating the return of Ukrainian civilian hostages and access for the International Committee of the Red Cross to Russian detention facilities.
ZMINA previously reported that, according to human rights defenders, another prisoner had been enlisted to subject Iryna Danylovych, a Crimean citizen journalist and activist, to psychological abuse at Penal Colony No. 7 in Zelenokumsk, in Russia’s Stavropol region.
To mark the second anniversary of Viktoriia Roshchyna’s death, ZMINA published an article on the investigation into her case and efforts to commemorate her.
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