On 5 August 2024, press freedom group Reporters without Borders (RSF) published information about a citizen journalist from the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, exposing his arrest, torture and other mistreatment at the hand of Russian forces, which occupied the city in March 2022. According to the RSF report, following the occupation of Melitopol, lawyer Yevhenii Ilchenko began running an anonymous Telegram channel with news on events in the city. The channel focused on difficulties inhabitants began encountering following Russia’s occupation, such as long lines to obtain documents, lack of products in supermarkets and bribes in certain public institutions. “llchenko took a great personal risk to keep the public informed despite his lack of previous journalistic experience,” RSF wrote.
In July 2022, Ilchenko was reportedly arrested after a search at his home, then accused of “terrorism” and jailed. Messages that Ilchenko managed to send to one of his relatives, which RSF has reportedly seen, described how he was first detained for several weeks in Melitopol with some 15 other Ukrainians. According to the messages, acts of torture were commonplace. Prisoners were regularly electrocuted, particularly on their genitals. Sometimes, the prisoners were driven into a forest, naked, at night, for a mock execution before being brought back, terrorised, to their jail. “I didn’t crack, but not everyone is as strong,” he wrote to his contact.
Starting in September 2022, after Russians suffered certain military setbacks, Ilchenko was subjected to forced labour. Photos sent by the ex-lawyer during his captivity, reportedly seen by RSF, show that he was forced to help build trenches for the Russian forces and clean weapons for several months. At the time, Ilchenko was held a few dozen kilometres from Melitopol, near the Ukrainian village Verbove in Zaporizhia region.
Ilchenko returned to prison after several months of digging defensive lines for his captors, RSF reported. According to one of the group’s sources, he may now be held in Taganrog, a port city in Russia not far from the Ukrainian border, in harsh conditions. An ex-prisoner in Taganrog told RSF that in the prison walks are only allowed once every two months, and that the lights are always on in order to torture prisoners.