In an interview with 'Censor.NET', IMI's Oksana Romaniuk talks about Russian troops' "hunt" for Ukrainian journalists and why detained journalists are not swapped in prisoner exchanges.
This statement was originally published on imi.org.ua on 27 May 2025.
In wartime, much depends on journalists’ work. After all, information is also a part of this war that the enemy makes use of. Accordingly, those who tell the world the truth become a target.
Censor.NET journalist Tetyana Bodnya spoke with the executive director of the Institute of Mass Information, Oksana Romaniuk, about the Russian troops’ hunt for journalists and why detained journalists are not swapped in prisoner exchanges.
“From the start of the full-scale war to mid-March 2025, Russia targeted Ukrainian hotels at least 31 times, injuring at least 25 media professionals. These are the data by the journalist organizations Truth Hounds and Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The researchers say that these attacks do not appear random: they are a deliberate and repeatedly employed tactic. Given the findings of this study, could it be said that the Russians are hunting Ukrainian journalists down?”
“Undoubtedly. Our observations confirm this, too. We have repeatedly recorded situations where journalists were not just attacked with explosives dropped from drones, but shot at by snipers. All while wearing the ‘markings’, so the enemy was definitely aware that they were media representatives.
“As for the strikes on hotels, I think the Russians are well aware that hotels have become important hubs for the journalist community, especially the international one, since the first days of the war. Because there you can access the Internet, charge your equipment and phones, have something to eat, and share some information with colleagues while you are at it. I think this was another reason the Russians attacked them.
“Hotels are in no way legitimate military targets. They are civilian by definition. That is, hunting down journalists, shelling hotels – all this is a glaring violation of international humanitarian law.”
“Have you been sharing all the facts you record about journalists with law enforcement agencies or international organizations investigating war crimes?”
“Yes, we consistently work together with Ukrainian law enforcement agencies. And we are part of the task force that was created at the Prosecutor General’s Office and that we share information about such crimes with. They use these facts as grounds for opening proceedings or to clarify details in cases they received some information on earlier.
“We work with international colleagues too, of course. In particular, with Reporters Without Borders, which prepared this report on the hotel strikes: we were also involved in it as experts. In fact, all international organizations use our data. Though we wish there were tangible results.”
“And what are the results now?”
“As of now, it is public pressure and our partners’ awareness that Russia is indeed committing crimes and that we need justice. Which means we need an international tribunal that can pave the way for the perpetrators to be punished.
“You mentioned working with the Prosecutor General’s Office as part of a task force. Do you know exactly how wartime crimes against media professionals are investigated? Are they systematized into a single overarching proceeding?”
“We just started working with them last year to make this a separate mainline issue. Because we need to align Ukrainian legislation with European law, with the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. Because in our legislation, the definition of ‘journalist’ is very narrow. This is a person who has an editorial ID, collects and reports information. While international law understands this concept to include producers, bloggers, photographers, camerapeople, freelancers, commentators, editors, presenters as well. That is, we need to expand this definition. And we have agreed on a shared basic vision. Because, according to international practices, when it comes to the work of media professionals in wartime and war crimes committed against them, technical personnel must also be included. These are drivers traveling with journalists, interpreters, and security advisors. When we started working with prosecutors, we noticed that they counted some journalists as civilians, not media professionals, because these journalists had no editorial ID. Problems may also arise with some fixers and producers who have no journalist certificates. After all, they may have previously worked as English teachers, not in the media, and were hired temporarily. But they are still performing journalistic work, are members of the media crew.”
“Why, in your opinion, have the Russians been ‘hunting’ journalists more actively?”
“I wouldn’t say that they have been more active, they have been consistently doing this since 2022. They hunt journalists, take them prisoner. For the Russians, journalists are enemies. Which makes it extremely risky for Ukrainian and foreign journalists to work in the occupied territories. It is important that international organizations also realize this, which could issue recommendations like, ‘Oh, when you travel to the occupied territories, take care of your safety.’ But we cannot work there at all, because for the Russians, a Ukrainian journalist is simply a target.”
“Should foreign journalists also be aware that they risk becoming such a target?”
“I don’t think that foreign journalists can work there without agreeing to peddle Russian propaganda. If an independent journalist gets there, they will simply not be permitted to work.”
“If they are targeting journalists whose bulletproof vests say they are with the press, how can one protect themselves? By not wearing any ‘markings’?”
“Yes. Journalists working on the battlefields are not ‘marked’ as the press. Now, marking is more for the third line [of defenses], when you are working with the Ukrainian troops, so that they see that you are a journalist and act in accordance with UAF Commander-in-Chief’s Decree No. 73. But wherever you may come into direct contact with the Russians, the less marking, the better. As practice shows.”
“If one realizes that they may be captured, what should they do with the collected material, with their own documents? Throw it all away?”
“There is no rule of thumb here. Each case is unique. But from what we see, journalists who get captured are released very, very slowly, it is all very complicated. You saw that they tortured Viktoria Roshchyna to the point that she weighed under 30 kilograms. They essentially killed her. Because the state of her body as it was given back looks as if they wanted to cover up the evidence of murder.”
“How many journalists are currently in Russian detention?”
“At least 30. These are the confirmed ones. But there have been cases of journalists going missing in the occupied territories and we still do not know their whereabouts and are unable to verify any information about them. Maybe they died, maybe they left for Russia, or maybe they are imprisoned.”
“Do you have any means of communicating with the Red Cross regarding the health and detention conditions of those who were confirmed as prisoners?”
“The Red Cross has a policy of only communicating with the families. They do not speak to third parties, whoever that is, and they do not disclose information.
“Unfortunately, from what we see, we have many questions for international organizations whose mandate includes defending human rights. The OSCE, the UN, the Red Cross – they could all organize monitoring missions if they put in the effort. Visit the prisons, check on the state of these people. Here is a list of journalists, here is a list of civilians and a list of prisons – all of this is already public, there have been many investigations into this topic. And the situation with Viktoria Roshchyna should have prompted them to organize these missions at lightning speed and to show that they are really doing something and that they are of still some use in this world.”
“What do you think is the reason they are not doing this?”
“When we criticized the Red Cross last year, they gathered human rights activists and told them that their mandate was narrow. That they were only passing letters from the family to the imprisoned person and back.
“International research and investigations such as the one we opened our conversation with or the one about Viktoria Roshchyna is sorely lacking.
“All these organizations should appoint special rapporteurs, each focusing on a specific issue of human rights in detention. This applies to both POWs and civilians. You can single out some subcategories among civilians and start with journalists, for instance. Start working with international organizations to collect evidence, to report publically.
“This public reporting can be based on reporting by journalists. Even if it is an unofficial law-based investigation, it will still help raise international awareness. After all, we are seeing pro-Russian politicians ‘sprout’ in some countries and a certain share of the population listens to them. We really need people in different countries to know what is really going on. We want the world not to remain indifferent.”
“We need consistent international pressure on Russia to check the detention conditions of journalists, civilians, and POWs.”
“What’s most alarming is that we really do not know what the state of our colleagues and other Ukrainians who are imprisoned in Russia is.”
“Exactly. For example, journalist Iryna Levchenko was already retired when the Russians kidnapped her right off the streets in Melitopol. We know that she has been beaten, questioned. Now she is supposedly imprisoned in the territory of Russia. But we do not know where exactly and in what state she is, what is happening to her.
“Or Dmytro Khyliuk, who was detained by the Russian troops in early March 2022. He was the first journalist to be taken to Russia and illegally imprisoned there. We do not know his current state, either.
“We really need to find out all this. That’s why I would really like to see international investigations into all 30 detained journalists. And not only journalists, but all those people whose detention by Russia is a war crime.”
“There are different opinions as to whether the cases of detained journalists should be discussed publically. Some say that they should be talked about as much as possible, some, on the contrary, advise to keep quiet so as not to make their situation worse, because we can not know exactly how those holding them prisoner will react. And whether they will be removed from the lists during the next swap. What is your opinion?”
“We don’t make announcements about the journalists right away, we keep quiet at first. And we speak out in two cases. First is if the Russians took a person prisoner specifically as they were reporting. And they know that this person is a journalist. This was the case, say, with Dmytro. As I understand it, they were aware that he was a journalist.
“As for other situations, either the relatives come to us hoping that publicity will help or an international organization makes a public statement about the journalist.
“Each situation is unique, and these are not easy decisions. We consult with lawyers, families, and special services. That is why we say: at least 30 journalists are in Russian detention, even though we believe that in reality there are more.
“Do they count journalists as civilians or prisoners of war?”
“Again, there are different cases. Khyliuk has nothing to do with the army, he is a civilian. But they post him in their Telegram channels attributing things to him that never happened at all. This is obviously their attempts to legitimize their unlawful actions. They are simply putting on a show for their audience or an international one, pretending that these are not journalists but soldiers. Not true at all. These are civilians. You are violating international humanitarian law by detaining civilians!”
“How many journalists have died during the full-scale war?”
“106 media workers have died. Of these, 12 were killed while reporting and another 94 died either as civilian victims of Russian shelling, like Vira Hyrych and Oksana Haydar, or as combatants, and we remember them as our colleagues who could have continued to work as journalists but chose to defend us instead.”
“When journalists died during the wars in Iran or Afghanistan, the world media reported on it. Why is there less coverage when journalists die in Ukraine?”
“The interest gradually died down during 2023–2024. It was noticeable that the whole Ukraine story, so to speak, had become boring. But the change of leadership in the US, even the Oval Office meeting with Trump, talks of whether there would be a ceasefire, have reignited interest in Ukraine.
“I can even compare. Year 2024. We are speaking an international conference. Talking about cases with journalists. People in the audience react something like, ‘This Ukraine again…’
“Year 2025. We are speaking at the largest journalist event in Europe and talk with our colleagues about Viktoria Roshchyna. People listen and cry. They even approached me later at the airport, on the bus. They said that they had been at the event, that they were shocked by the Russians’ crimes, that Viktoria had a whole life ahead of her, that she wanted to do her job, and they treated her so cruelly.”
“Unfortunately, this is not the only case of mistreatment. Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, has reported that the Ukrainian journalist Iryna Danylovych, illegally imprisoned in Russia, is not provided with proper medical care or necessary medication.”
“Iryna Danylovych has lost hearing in one ear specifically because the Russians did not provide and do not provide her with medical care.”
“When a journalist enlists, they realize that they are risking their life and may be killed. Perhaps some insurance options for media workers should be developed together with insurance companies so that their families receive support?”
“I absolutely agree with you. I believe that we need amendments to the law that will create a practical mechanism for insuring journalists. The thing is that now the insurance obligations are put on media outlets. On the one hand, this is reasonable, because journalists and media outlets are independent, but editorial teams simply can not afford large sums.
“There is an insurance fund for journalists, by the way. This is a joint initiative of several media organizations. Journalists can apply for insurance there. But it only insures on a day-to-day basis. That is, say, you are going on a trip to Kherson oblast and will be there for three days. You insure your life for this period.
“As for insurance companies, there is one nuance here. When we studied this topic, we found that Ukrainian insurance companies are not very willing to insure journalists. They say that it is impossible to outline the geographical area this insurance would cover and where increased rates would be assigned. Because drones fly everywhere and information about these areas is classified.
“Perhaps the state should support those media outlets that want to insure journalists. Of course, we need to think about how this can be ensured at the legislative level. But even if a law to that effect is passed, the problem is that there are not enough offers on the market from insurance companies that would like to insure journalists.”
Tetyana Bodnya, Censor.NET
