Institute of Mass Information (IMI)

“The Russians had pre-made lists of Ukrainian journalists and purposefully detained and kidnapped them. This was done to prevent the media from reporting on Russia’s crimes to the world” – IMI

The most common reasons for closing down were the Russian occupation of territories, which saw 117 media outlets closed, and financial difficulties caused by the war, which resulted in 96 closures.

In October, several media outlets and journalists received identical emails with bomb threats. Ukrainian police said the threats came from Russian IP addresses.

Russia recently admitted detaining Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who went missing while reporting from Russian-occupied territory in August 2023.

These incidents included cases of prosecution, abduction, administrative proceedings, searches, and online death threats.

Russia declared Institute of Mass Information expert Iryna Zemlyana wanted in 2022, opening a criminal case against her on spurious charges of attacking the Russian ambassador in Poland during an anti-war protest.

Since Russia’s invasion began, Press Freedom Centers opened in Ukraine by Reporters Without Borders and the Institute of Mass Information have provided support to 1,300 journalists and media outlets.

According to reports, the journalists were fired on by Russian snipers in Kherson. Both were wearing ‘Press’ badges.