Ukrainian journalist freed from Russian detention in occupied Crimea
A Ukrainian journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) was freed on Sunday after being detained by Russian authorities for more than four years in occupied Crimea, according to the media organisation.
Vladyslav Yesypenko was arrested and imprisoned on 10 March 2021 in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Yesypenko was charged with spying for Ukraine — a charge he denied — and a Russian-installed court in the territory sentenced him to six years imprisonment in February 2022, although his sentence was later reduced to five years.
As well as being denied by Yesypenko himself, RFE/RL and rights groups have said that the charges were fabricated. Yesypenko was also later charged with possessing explosives —which he also denied — although prosecutors later acknowledged that the grenade found in his car did not have his fingerprints on it.
Yesypenko, who is a dual Russian-Ukrainian citizen, testified during his trial that he had been tortured with electric shocks to elicit a false confession.
"For more than four years, Vlad was arbitrarily punished for a crime he did not commit. He paid too high of a price for reporting the truth about what was taking place inside Russia-occupied Crimea," RFE/RL chief executive Stephen Capus said. He added that Yesypenko had been "tortured, physically and psychologically".
Yesypenko was freed after RFE/RL correspondent Ihar Karnei was released from prison inBelarus following a visit from a senior US official. Karnei was arrested in 2023 and sentenced to three years in prison on "extremism" charges that he denied.
Capus thanked the US and Ukrainian governments for "working with us to ensure that Vlad's unjust detention was not prolonged". The Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak also thanked everyone who helped free Yesypenko.
Media freedom in Crimea has deteriorated since Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea: according to Ukrainian human rights NGO ZMINA, 88% of media outlets active before 2014 had ceased operating by 2015.
According to PEN America, Yesypenko had been gathering footage for a report featuring Crimean residents talking about how their lives had changed in the years since Russia annexed the peninsula.
Authorities have also intensified their crackdown on dissent within Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022: in April, a Russian court convicted four journalists of "extremism" and sentenced them each to more than five years in prison.
All maintained their innocence and said they were being prosecuted for doing their jobs as journalists.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
At least 10 killed in overnight missile and drone attacks on Ukraine
Among the attacks, the deadliest one was a missile strike on the city of Samar in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, which killed five people and injured at least 25. In the southern port city of Odesa, a married couple were killed by a Russian drone that struck a 21-story residential building. The attack caused a major fire across three floors, injuring at least 14 other people, including three children. Firefighters worked throughout the night to put the fire out. Further deaths were reported across the country, with two people killed in Donetsk Oblast and one killed in the Kherson region. Russian attacks also wounded people in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Sumy oblasts. Ukraine's Air Force reported that on the night of 27-28 June, Russian forces attacked with 23 Shahed drones of various types. Ukraine says they successfully downed 22 of them. The attacks are the latest in a series of intensified Russian air assaults on Ukrainian cities throughout May and June.
Euronews
10 hours ago
- Euronews
A placated Trump and an EU-Canada love fest
The leaders of the NATO countries met in The Hague for their annual summit. In view of the latent Russian threat, they agreed on a drastic increase in collective defense spending. But it was also about satisfying the unpredictable man in the White House. Does this solve all the problems now? For decades, Europe has been the most loyal ally of the United States. That's what most political and military leaders on both sides of the Atlantic understood Europe's role on the world stage to be. That today is insufficient, as US president Trump treats his faithful allies as if they were devious freeloaders. That's why the prospect of being abandoned by the US produces existential angst among Europeans. Who would lead the western defense in case of a Russian attack? In The Hague, European NATO allies agreed to invest more in the defense of their own continent: the target is now 5% of GDP over the next few years. Is this realistic for everyone? Is it enough? Does it come with a new strategic role for Europe? And most important: will it placate Washington in the years to come? Questions our guests discussed this week: Kathleen Van Brempt, a Belgian member of the European Parliament from the Social Democrats, Matthew Robinson, director of the Euro-Gulf Information Centre, and Karel Lannoo, chief executive of the Centre for European Policy Studies. The NATO summit was overshadowed by the Middle East conflict. After all, the largest and most important member of the alliance became a party to the war there. The US attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities came in support of Israel and ultimately brought about a ceasefire - but this was broken just hours later. Does diplomacy still have a real chance after all? The problem: there are still too few answers to too many questions. Is Trump's decision like kicking a hornet's nest? What real damage have the bombings caused? Is the Iranian nuclear program now history? And what about regime change in Tehran? Does Trump want one or does he not? And how could this be achieved without a military invasion? And finally: what about the ceasefire? Finally: Thank you Donald Trump! The US president's behavior has practically turned his neighbor Canada and the European Union into political lovers. Trump's threat of the 51st federal state was echoed in this country by talk of the 28th member state of the EU. This week, the leaders of the EU and Canada met in Brussels for a summit - which also focused on defence. But that's not all: the bilateral security and defence pact, that was signed here, is the most far-reaching agreement that Europe has ever entered into with a third country. This will open up new avenues for joint work on crisis management, military mobility, maritime security, cyber and cyber threats, and defence industrial co-operation. Is Canada replacing the US as a favorite partner in North America?
Euronews
20 hours ago
- Euronews
Putin says Moscow is ready for new peace talks with Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow is ready for a fresh round of direct peace talks with Ukraine, even as both warring countries trade long-range drone attacks. Speaking to reporters in Minsk, Putin said Russian and Ukrainian officials are discussing the timing of a potential new meeting. The Russian leader said that the terms of a potential ceasefire, which the Kremlin has so far rejected, are expected to be on the agenda. The war shows no signs of abating, as US-led international peace efforts have so far produced no breakthrough. Two recent rounds of talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul were brief and yielded no progress on a peace deal. Ukraine wants the next step in peace talks to be a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said. However, the suggestion appears likely to be a non-starter, given Putin's recent comments. The Russian leader has said a summit meeting should take place only after the main provisions of a peace deal have been agreed, something that could take months or years. Putin has also repeated his claim that Zelenskyy lost his legitimacy after his presidential term expired last year, an allegation rejected by Kyiv and its allies. Russia and Ukraine trade long-range drone attacks Meanwhile, Russian forces launched 363 Shahed and decoy drones as well as eight missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said on Friday, claiming that air defences stopped all but four of the drones and downed six cruise missiles. Russia's Defence Ministry said 39 Ukrainian drones were downed in several regions overnight, including 19 over the Rostov region and 13 over the Volgograd region. Both regions lie east of Ukraine. Long-range drone strikes have been a hallmark of the war, now in its fourth year. The race by both sides to develop increasingly sophisticated and deadlier drones has turned the war into a testing ground for new weaponry Ukrainian drones have pulled off some stunning feats. At the start of June, nearly a third of Moscow's strategic bomber fleet was destroyed or damaged in a covert Ukrainian operation using cheaply made drones snuck into Russian territory. According to the Ukrainian air force, around 359 incoming drones were either intercepted or electronically jammed. Ukraine halts Russian advance in Sumy On Thursday, Ukraine's top military commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, claimed Ukrainian forces halted Russia's recent advance into the north-eastern Sumy region and stabilised the front line near the Russian border. General Syrskyi said the successful defence in Sumy has prevented Russia from redeploying around 50,000 troops, including elite airborne and marine brigades, to other parts of the front line. Ukraine is employing new countermeasures against Russia's escalation of combined missile and drone attacks, officials say. Instead of relying on ground-based mobile teams to shoot down Shaheds, Ukraine is deploying interceptor drones it has developed. Moscow has not yet commented on his claim. Before this, Russian forces had made slow, costly advances along parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line, shelling the Sumy region in several attacks that killed civilians and destroyed buildings. Ukrainian authorities say their outnumbered forces relied heavily on drones to hold back Russian troops, just as US-led international efforts to broker a ceasefire went on. Those months-long talks have failed, with the only tangible result being the agreement to carry out a series of prisoner-of-war exchanges.
