Write to Russia

“My husband has managed to retain what is most valuable: his inner freedom of thought and power of the word.  The book is an important reminder of the fate of Ukrainian civilians whom the Kremlin is illegally holding in its prison camps. It is a call to not be silent, but to remember and act.”

– Olena Tsyhipa, wife of Serhiy Tsyhipa, on a collection of poems written by Serhiy Tsyhipa in Russian captivity published in June 2026 entitled ‘Alphabet of Captivity’

Serhiy Tsyhipa is turning 65 on 10 August, his fifth birthday in Russian captivity, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group reports.  Serhiy Tsyhipa is a Ukrainian journalist, writer and civic activist from Nova Kakhovka in Kherson region. He has been abducted, tortured and held in Russian captivity for five years for opposing Russia’s full-scale invasion of his country.

As KHPG reports, Tsyhipa disappeared on 12 March 2022 as he was travellling to Tavriysk to take medicine to his mother-in-law. Oleh Baturin, a fellow journalist, who was abducted a day later, but released after eight days, was able to confirm that Tsyhipa was held by the Russians, with that almost the only information that Serhiy’s family had for the first eight months.  Russia acknowledged that Tsyhipa was in custody in November 2022. In December 2022 he was accused him of espionage under Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.  He was sentenced on 6 October 2023 to 13 years in a strict regime penal colony (this was upheld on appeal on 13 February 2024 and on 27 March 2025 Russia’s Supreme Court rejected a cassation appeal against the sentence). 

Memorial has recognised Serhiy Tsyhipa as a political prisoner.

Write to Serhiy Tsyhipa

The Russian penal system does not allow any messages to prisoners that are written in foreign languages, but Write to Russia is here to help you. To show your support for Serhiy Tsyhipa please send your letter as an email to us at: le******************@********il.com. We’ll translate your letter into Russian and, depending on your request, either mail the translated letters on your behalf to Serhiy Tsyhipa, or return the letters to you by email for posting in an envelope with addresses written in Russian. If we send the letter on your behalf, we ask that you compensate us for the cost of postage from the UK (currently £3.60 [$4.89; €4.17] for one letter). For suggestions on what to write to a political prisoner, click here. To learn more about our letter writing project, click here: Write to Russia.

You can write to Serhiy Tsyhipa at the following address:

Russian Federation – 391846, Рязанская область, г. Скопин, Октябрьский мкр-н, ул. Заводская, д. 1, ФКУ ИК-3 УФСИН России по Рязанской области, Цыгипа Сергей Витальевич, 1961 г. р.

The persons unjustly imprisoned in Russia whose plight our project Write to Russia has highlighted to date can be found at this link:

Write to Russia – List of Prisoners

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