A Ukrainian journalist has been captured from Russian custody

According to RFE/RL, Ukrainian Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko was released on Sunday after four years in Russian custody in Crimea. YESYPENKO was arrested and imprisoned in Crimea on March 10, 2021, illegally annexed by Russia, suspected of gathering intelligence information for Ukraine, an allegation that they refused. In February 2022, a Russian-established court in Crimea sentenced a double Russian-Ukrainian citizen to six years on espionage charges, which he, his employer and rights groups stated that they were fabricated. Months later, he was also accused of keeping explosives – a claim he refuses. The prosecutors later admitted that the grenade found in his car did not tolerate his fingers. The top Moscow-controlled court in Crimea later reduced the sentence of Yasipankco by five years. During his test, he testified that he was tortured with electric shock to extract a false confession. RFE/RL CEO Stephen Capus said, “For more than four years, Vlad was punished arbitrarily for a crime. He paid a price too much to report the truth about what was happening inside Russia’s Crimea.” Capus thanked the US and Ukrainian governments “for working with us to ensure that the unjust of Vlad was not long.” In a post on Telegram, Ukrainian President’s ally Andrey Yarmak thanked everyone, who helped secure the release of Yasipanko. After a rare journey by a senior American official, RFE/RL correspondent Ihar Carnei was released from jail in Belarus for a long time.