A Ukrainian freelance journalist who had been convicted in Crimea has been released from the penal colony.

Ukrainian freelance journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko, who was convicted in 2022, has been released from the penal colony and has left annexed Crimea. This was reported by the outlet Krym.Realii, with which Yesypenko collaborated.

Radio Svoboda, which includes Krym.Realii, reported that Yesypenko has already met with his wife and daughter. The organisation thanked the authorities of the United States and Ukraine for their cooperation, “thanks to which Vlad’s unlawful detention was not extended.”

Yesypenko was detained in Crimea at the beginning of March 2021. The FSB claimed that the journalist was gathering information on the peninsula in the interests of Ukrainian intelligence, and that “an item resembling an improvised explosive device” was found in his car. He was placed in custody.

Soon after, Yesypenko reported that he had given a confession after two days of torture, but later retracted it. According to the journalist, FSB officers detained him on the road from Simferopol to Alushta, planted a grenade in his car, and then took him to a basement where he was tortured with electricity and beaten.

Yesypenko was charged with the manufacture of explosives (Part 1, Article 223.1 of the Criminal Code) and their transportation (Part 1, Article 222.1 of the Criminal Code). In February 2022, a court sentenced him to six years in a general regime penal colony and a fine of 110,000 rubles (about US$1,200). On appeal, the sentence was reduced to five years in a penal colony.

The journalist served his sentence in Correctional Colony No. 2 in Kerch, a city in Crimea.