Melitopol journalist Iryna Levchenko abducted in 2023 ‘found’ imprisoned in Russian-occupied Donetsk

Almost two and a half years after the Russians abducted retired journalist Iryna Levchenko and her husband Oleksandr from occupied Melitopol, Iryna’s family have finally received confirmation that she is alive and held prisoner in occupied Donetsk.   

In a letter passed to her family by human rights activists, Iryna explained that she is now in the Donetsk SIZO or remand prison, but that she may be taken to Simferopol in occupied ‘Crimea’ for ‘trial’.  There remains no information as to why she and her husband were abducted in May 2023; why she remains imprisoned to this day, and what charges are now to be brought against the journalist.  Oleksandr Levchenko was held prisoner for over a year but was finally released.   

Iryna Levchenko was well-known as a journalist, however she had retired two years before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and only occasionally worked in her profession. It was because she and Oleksandr Levchenko were both retired and had medical issues that they remained in occupied Melitopol when Iryna’s sister, Olena Rudenko, tried to persuade them to leave together with her and her younger daughter.  They, unfortunately, believed that they were not in any danger, and remained, hoping that the occupation would soon end.  Olena explained earlier that she had no idea why the Russians had seized her sister and brother-in-law, but thought it possible that that Iryna, who was passionate about photography, might have taken a photograph that the Russians deemed ‘suspicious’.

Iryna and Oleksandr Levchenko were seized on 6 May 2023, although it was a full two weeks later that their family learned that they had been, without any explanation, detained on the street and taken away.   Officially, the Russians have never confirmed seizing the couple.

Iryna was initially held prisoner in Melitopol, and it is not clear when she was moved to occupied Donetsk, with the family having long heard nothing about her whereabouts.  

Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia oblast was one of the first cities to come under occupation following Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022.  Large protests against the invaders continued until the Russians began using terror methods, including widespread abductions. A huge number of civilians have been abducted in Melitopol alone, including several journalists and administrators of two Telegram channels: Melitopol is Ukraine and RIA-Melitopol.

At least six young administrators of the two pro-Ukrainian Telegram channels were abducted by the Russians a few months after Iryna and Oleksandr Levchenko were seized.   The Russians managed to hack into and hijack the Telegram channel RIA-Melitopol back on 20 August 2023, and it was then that journalist Heorhiy Levchenko and, almost certainly, Yana Suvorova; Mark Kaliush; Oleksandr Malyshev and Maksym Rupchov were abducted.  In late October 2023, Russian propaganda media posted a video on which Yana Suvorova, who was just 19, Mark Kaliush, who had earlier been diagnosed as having schizophrenia and several others had clearly been terrorized and / or tortured into ‘confessing’ to an absurdly implausible ‘terrorist’ plot. 

In July 2025, 26-year-old Mark Kaliush was effectively sentenced by Russia’s notorious Southern District Military Court in Rostov to indefinite punitive psychiatry – incarceration in a ‘psychiatric institution.  The ‘trials’ at this same court are shortly to begin of three or probably four of the young journalists or Telegram administrators abducted in August 2023: 25-year-old Maksym Rupchov; Denys Hlushchenko; Oleksandr Malyshev and, most likely (the name is concealed) Yana Suvorova.  Vladyslav Hershon, who was also abducted at the same time, is on trial alone, though, like Yana Suvorova, he appears to have been an administrator of the Melitopol is Ukraine Telegram channel.  In March 2025, the occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia prosecutor’ reported that an indictment  against journalist and Telegram channel administrator Heorhiy Levchenko had been passed to ‘the court’.  He appears to be accused of ‘state treason’ and ‘calls to extremist activities’