On 6 October 2023, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) reported that Ukrainian journalist Serhiy Tsyhipa had been sentenced to 13 years in prison on espionage charges, by a court in Russian-occupied Crimea. NUJU expressed its solidarity with the imprisoned journalist. The union also quoted Tsyhipa’s wife Olena, who said that the prison sentence meant “in practice life imprisonment” for her 62-year-old husband.

In December 2022, the Crimean Human Rights Group said journalist from Nova Kahkovka Serhiy Tsyhipa was accused of espionage, while remaining in Russian detention in the city of Simferopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea. Tsyhipa went missing in March 2022 after departing to the city of Tavriysk to pass on medicine to his mother-in-law, said the Crimean Human Rights Group.

UPDATE: On 13 February 2024, Ukrainian human rights defenders reported that a Russian court in Crimea had confirmed the sentence earlier handed to Tsyhipa.

UPDATE: On 11 July 2024, Tsyhipa’s wife Olena Tsyhipa told Ukrainian human rights group ZMINA that she was not allowed to pass on some of the medicine that she had planned to send to her husband due to a ban issued by a Russian prison doctor. The reasoning behind the ban was unclear. Moreover, Tsyhipa reported that authorities were trying to force her husband to accept Russian citizenship.