The whereabouts of two Ukrainian journalists held by Russia have been unknown for several months, a press freedom group said Wednesday.
Heorhiy Levchenko and Anatasiya Glukhovska were detained in August 2023 by officers with the Russian Federal Security Service, but their arrests were not made public until October 2023 when Russian state media reported on the jailings.
About eight months since the journalists’ arrests, their whereabouts remain unknown, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ.
The New York-based press freedom group called for Russian authorities to immediately release the reporters.
“Journalists Heorhiy Levchenko and Anatasiya Glukhovksa have been held incommunicado by Russian occupying forces in Ukraine for almost eight months, simply for being journalists,” Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in a statement.
“Russian authorities must immediately release them, drop all charges against them, and stop their illegal prosecution of Ukrainian nationals in occupied territories,” she added.
Levchenko is being investigated for alleged terrorism, but it’s unclear what charges — if any — Glukhovska is facing.
Levchenko and Glukhovska are among several journalists detained in Russia-occupied Ukrainian territories. The whereabouts of at least three others are also unknown, according to the CPJ.
The Washington embassies of Ukraine and Russia did not immediately reply to VOA’s emails requesting comment.
