Dmytro Khyliuk

Dmytro Khyliuk is a Ukrainian journalist and correspondent for the UNIAN news agency. Born in 1975, he entered journalism in the mid-2000s after postgraduate studies at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. He worked for several Ukrainian news agencies before joining UNIAN in late 2013, where he covered courts, law enforcement, politics and human-rights issues.

On March 3, 2022, Russian troops detained Khyliuk near his family home in Kozarovychi, a village north of Kyiv then under Russian occupation. His father was also detained but was later released. Khyliuk was transferred through several detention sites and eventually moved into Russia.

Reporters Without Borders reconstructed his detention route through witness testimony, including imprisonment in Novozybkov and later Penal Colony No. 7 in Pakino, Vladimir region.

For a long period, Russian authorities did not acknowledge holding him. In 2024, Russia classified him as a “prisoner of war,” even though he was a civilian journalist. He was never publicly charged with a criminal offence and was never sentenced.

Former detainees told RSF that Khyliuk was beaten, humiliated and deprived of adequate food. RSF reported that his weight had fallen below 45 kilograms by the time of his release. These accounts are witness testimony rather than findings of a court.

Khyliuk was released on August 24, 2025, as part of a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia after more than three years in captivity. He subsequently began campaigning publicly for the release of other Ukrainian journalists still held by Russia.