Anastasiia Hlukhovska is a Ukrainian journalist who was abducted by officers from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in occupied Melitopol in August 2023. She has been illegally held in Russian custody for more than two years without any official charges being brought or even an acknowledgement of her detention.

The Slidstvo.Info editorial team has obtained official responses from a Russian investigative committee and the FSB. Both agencies claim that they "did not detain" Hlukhovska and "have no information about her whereabouts".

However, the journalists found a witness who confirmed that Hlukhovska is being held in detention centre No. 3 in Kizel in Russia's Perm Krai, where other Ukrainian prisoners, including Dniprorudne Mayor Yevhen Matvieiev and journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, have died.

According to testimonies from former inmates, Hlukhovska was tortured in a makeshift detention site in the basement of a company named Ruslan-komplekt in occupied Melitopol. One former prisoner, Olena, said she had heard Hlukhovska screaming and seen the effects of electric shock torture.

"A guard came and said: 'Olena, please look after Nastia. If she feels unwell, knock.' That's what he said," the witness recalled.

Hlukhovska was later moved – first to detention centre No. 2 in Taganrog, Russia, and then to Kizel.

According to Slidstvo.Info sources in law enforcement, the journalist was moved to Kizel on 30 August 2024.

"We were brought to Kizel at the end of November or early December. I fell ill," former prisoner of war Yevhenii Sholudko told Slidstvo.Info. "As soon as we woke up, they'd play the [Russian] national anthem. It started playing, and I fainted for the first time in 28 years. Later I was taken to a doctor and had a chest X-ray. It turned out I had either a lung infection or pneumonia. They took me to hospital for some injections. I was standing waiting for my turn when I heard Nastia's surname."

Reporters Without Borders have confirmed that Hlukhovska is being held incommunicado – with no official acknowledgment of her arrest – meaning that Russia is effectively concealing her existence.

The other Melitopol journalists who were detained along with Hlukhovska have already been sentenced: Heorhii Levchenko received 16 years in prison, and Vladyslav Hershon 15 years.

Despite having spent more than two years in captivity, Anastasiia Hlukhovska has still not been formally charged with any crime.