Dmytro Khilyuk, a correspondent of Ukrainian Independent Information Agency (UNIAN), went missing on March 4, 2022. According to his colleague Natalia Boguta, Khilyuk was abducted by Russian military forces and taken to a detention centre in Dymer, Kyiv region. She announced the information on Facebook. On the eve of his alleged abduction, Khilyuk had written on Facebook that his village Kozarovychi, located on the west bank of the Dnipro river north of Kyiv, was under Russian occupation and soldiers had been going from door to door. Multiple other journalists have been detained and kidnapped in Ukraine by occupying Russian forces. No other information was received and the journalist’s whereabouts were unknown. The Institute of Mass Information (IMI) said in a post that “Most likely, Dmytro Khilyuk could be taken captive by the Russian military.”

UPDATE: On 12 September 2022, human rights activist Olha Reshetylova told Hromadske that Khilyuk was reportedly under arrest in a prison in Russia’s Bryansk region. She had spoken with Volodymyr Khrypun, a volunteer for the International Red Cross Cross Committee, who had recently been freed in a POW swap between Russia and Ukraine. Khrypun said he was previously detained in the same prison as Khilyuk and while he did not see him, he heard his name being called out by guards.

UPDATE: According to a report published by Reporters without Borders on 13 July 2023, Dmytro Khilyuk would currently be held in a Russian prison in Vladimir region, east of Moscow.

UPDATE: On 5 April 2024, Reporters without Borders (RSF) published a new report, in which the organization claimed that it had seen a letter by Russia’s Ministry of Defence, which would have said that Russian authorities consider Khilyuk to be a representative of Ukraine’s military held as a prisoner of war.

UPDATE: On 26 July 2024, RSF published new information obtained from relatives of Khilyuk, which indicated that the detained Ukrainian journalist was being subjected to mistreatment and was possibly exposed to hunger in prison in Russia.