Week-ending 19 June 2026
“Security conditions in Ukraine are evolving, particularly with the intensification of drone attacks, requiring media support organisations to adapt to journalists’ needs. RSF remains fully committed to supporting Ukraine’s media community and helping it continue its work. International donors must maintain their long-term support in order to safeguard press freedom and enable Ukraine’s media landscape to move beyond survival mode and build strategically for the future.‘
– Louise Alluin Bichet, RSF Projects Director
Source: ‘War in Ukraine: How RSF continues to help journalists working under Russian fire,’ RSF, 11 June 2026
Background from RSF: As Russia’s war against Ukraine has continued to impose major constraints on the country’s journalists and media outlets, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has been implementing programmes since 2022 to support reliable and independent journalism, with financial assistance from the European Union (EU) and in partnership with Ukrainian organisations. Here is an overview of RSF’s latest project, launched in 2025, which has already supported more than 430 journalists and 28 media outlets.
Political repression existed in Russia even before 2022, but with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it has changed significantly: its scale has increased exponentially, and sentences have become even harsher. Today, we are publishing an analytical overview of the tightening of penalties and discussing the legal mechanisms the state is using to achieve this.
– Memorial. Political Prisoners
Source: ‘Enemies, not criminals,’ Memorial Political Prisoners, 11 June 2026
Background from Memorial. Political Prisoners: Key Findings: Those persecuted for political reasons are effectively singled out as a separate group, toward which the authorities treat with striking cruelty. In their case, the state goes beyond the scope of standard criminal prosecution: they are viewed not as ordinary criminals subject to trial, but as enemies who pose a threat to the very existence of the political regime. Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, political repression has not only increased in quantity but has also changed in nature. Sentences in politically motivated cases have become much harsher: from an average of 6 years and 7 months in 2021 to 11 years in 2026. This increase in the severity of sentences is achieved through a variety of complementary measures: formal tightening of legislation, the use of more serious articles of the Russian Criminal Code for prosecution, and an increase in the number of charges.
‘Russia’s FSB has again reported the ‘arrest’ of a Ukrainian woman almost exactly a year after she was, in fact, abducted from Alushta in occupied Crimea. 59-year-old Maryna Kovalenko was held incommunicado for the first eight months, without any official status. Such periods are typically used by the FSB to fabricate charges and extract a ‘confession’, often with the use of torture and / or threats, and Kovalenko is known to have been held in the notorious SIZO No. 2, a remand prison in Crimea under the control of the FSB and used mainly to hold political prisoners. A ‘confession’ of sorts was, indeed, provided, but the fabrication on this occasion seems exceptionally blurred and sloppy. The reason is unclear, unless the FSB simply see no need for greater effort when convictions and long sentences, at least against Ukrainians, are effectively guaranteed.’
– Human Rights in Ukraine
Source: Halya Coynash, KHPG, 17 June 2026
Background from Human Rights in Ukraine: On 16 June, Russia’s state TASS agency reported the ‘arrest for passing on data about educational institutions’ as though it had just happened and called Kovalenko “a Ukrainian Security Service [SBU] agent’. It is noteworthy that Kovalenko’s own ‘confession’ and the TASS report talk of “passing on information about scientific and educational institutions”, while the FSB employee whom TASS interviews throws in a claim that Kovalenko was also expected to provide information about the movement of military technology.
‘The Observatory recalls that OVD-Info was declared as “foreign agent” in September 2021. The Observatory strongly condemns the designation of OVD-Info as an “extremist organisation”, which is only aimed at sanctioning its legitimate human rights activities and its exercise of the rights to freedom of association, assembly and expression. The Observatory urges the Russian authorities to remove OVD-Info, together with 35 other organisations affiliated with Memorial, from the list of extremist organisations, and for the reversal of the court ruling that designated the so-called “International Memorial Movement” as extremist and to put an end to any act of harassment against OVD-Info and their members as well as against all organisations defending human rights in the country. The Observatory also strongly condemns the trend of designating unregistered “public international movements” as “extremist” to facilitate the persecution of human rights organisations and defenders.’
– FIDH
Source: ‘Russian Federation: Human rights organisation OVD-Info added to “extremist organisation” list,’ FIDH, 15 June 2026
Background from FIDH: The Observatory has been informed of the judicial harassment and stigmatisation of OVD-Info, а Russian human rights organisation focused on protecting fundamental rights. OVD-Info, whose acronym stands for “Information on Police Stations”, was established in December 2011 in the aftermath of the violent dispersal of a large protest in Moscow against alleged fraud in the State Duma elections, with the aim of tracking detainees following protest-related arrests. The organisation monitors detentions and violations of the rights to freedom of assembly and association across Russia, provides legal assistance to detained protesters and politically motivated defendants, and conducts advocacy campaigns in support of political prisoners.
