The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NSZhU) issued a statement on March 8 marking the third anniversary of the incarceration by Russian occupiers of RFE/RL journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko in Ukraine's Crimea region.
Yesypenko, a dual Russian-Ukrainian citizen who contributed to Crimea.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, was arrested on March 10, 2021 and sentenced to six years in prison in February 2022 by a Russian-appointed court in Crimea on espionage charges that he, his employer, and rights organizations reject as politically motivated.
The NSZhU expressed solidarity with "Yesypenko and other journalists illegally detained by the occupiers [Russia]," and demanded "their immediate release."
The group also quoted Yesypenko's wife, Kateryna, as saying that her husband "was detained for his journalistic activities."
"From the very moment of his arrest, numerous violations of law by the officers of [Russia's Federal Security Service] have taken place," Kateryna Yesypenko said.
During his trial in 2022, Yesypenko rejected the charges and said the Russian authorities "want to discredit the work of freelance journalists who really want to show the things that really happen in Crimea."
In November 2022, Yesypenko became a laureate of Ukraine's Ihor Lubenko National Prize for Defense of Freedom Of Expression.
In May 2022, Yesypenko was awarded the United States' PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, which is given to political prisoners.
Before his arrest, Yesypenko had worked in Crimea for five years reporting on the social and environmental situation in the region.
Press-freedom advocates, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, along with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and the U.S. State Department, are among those who have called for Yesypenko's immediate release in the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing.
Moscow illegally annexed Crimea in early 2014 and weeks later threw its support behind separatists in Ukraine's east.
On February 24, 2022, Moscow launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
RFE/RL's jailed journalists (left to right): Alsu Kurmasheva, Ihar Losik, Andrey Kuznechyk, and Vladyslav Yesypenko
Yesypenko is one of four RFE/RL journalists -- Alsu Kurmasheva, Andrey Kuznechyk, and Ihar Losik are the other three -- currently imprisoned on charges related to their work. Rights groups and RFE/RL have called repeatedly for the release of all four, saying they have been wrongly detained.
Losik is a blogger and contributor for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service who was convicted in December 2021 on several charges including the “organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order” and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Kuznechyk, a web editor for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, was sentenced in June 2022 to six years in prison following a trial that lasted no more than a few hours. He was convicted of “creating or participating in an extremist organization.”
Kurmasheva, a Prague, Czech Republic-based journalist with RFE/RL who holds dual U.S. and Russian citizenship, has been held in Russian custody since October 18 on a charge of violating the so-called "foreign agent" law.