On June 18, HRF and Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter) submitted urgent updates to UN Special Procedures on the ongoing ill-treatment of Crimean citizen-journalist, nurse, and human rights defender Iryna Danylovych, who remains imprisoned in Russia as her health continues to deteriorate in custody.

Danilovych is enduring inhumane detention conditions in colony No. 7 in southwestern Russia. Russia has failed to provide her with the medical care she urgently needs and, instead, has created prison conditions that worsen her medical condition.

Violently abducted from Crimea by the Russian regime in April 2022, Danylovych worked for local independent Crimean media outlets. She has since been paying the price for her work.

Iryna’s case is urgent. Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna died in Russian custody in 2024 after more than a year of torture and mistreatment. Iryna is now facing the same machinery of cruelty: denial of medical care and torturous detention conditions.

HRF and RSF call for Iryna Danylovych’s immediate release, urgent access to adequate medical care, and accountability for Russia’s torture and abuse of journalists, human rights defenders, and Ukrainian civilians in its custody.