On 14 June, Mariupol journalist Volodymyr Chertushkin returned to Ukraine from Russian captivity as part of an exchange. This was reported by his wife Anna in her post.
Volodymyr spent more than three years in captivity as a prisoner of war, starting in May 2022.
Before the war, the defender worked as a journalist and documentary photographer for the Mariupol-based newspapers “Illichivets” and “Priazovskyi Robitnyk”. With the start of the full-scale invasion, Volodymyr suspended his journalistic activities and joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In January 2022, he became the press officer of the 109th separate territorial defence brigade of Mariupol. Together with other comrades, he fought for the city, ended up at the Azovstal plant, and was later captured.
The defender is currently undergoing rehabilitation.
Volodymyr Chertushkin became the fifth media figure to be released from Russian captivity during the full-scale invasion. Last year, Ukraine returned Nariman Dzhelial, Maksym Butkevych, Oleksandr Gudilin, and Roman Borshch to the territory under its control.
At the end of 2019, blogger and journalist Stanislav Asieiev, who had been a prisoner of the Kremlin for 962 days, was released from captivity. In the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Last September, the horrific details of the death of Russian-captured journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna shocked the world. The media woman disappeared in early August 2023 in the temporarily occupied territory. Her repatriated body was listed in the documents as an “unidentified male.” In this way, the Kremlin tried to cover up war crimes against Ukrainians.
At least 30 media professionals, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), are currently in Russian captivity.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, according to the Institute of Mass Information, 106 media workers have died: 12 while performing their professional duties; 94 as participants in hostilities and as a result of Russian shelling or torture.
Ukraine remembers all those whom Russia still keeps behind bars, and will do everything to bring them home.
