Nyhed Illegally detained

Letter to a friend in Prison

The following is a letter to Ukrainian journalist Anastasiia Hlukhovska - who has been illegally detained by Russia since 2023. It was sent to her in the Russian camp where she is believed to be held, as well as to Russian authorities.

19. december 2025 Kl 9:50

Opdateret: 19. december 2025 Kl 9:52

Redaktionen

19. december 2025 Kl 9:50
Opdateret: 19. december 2025 Kl 9:52

During the illegal occupation of parts of Ukraine, the Russian Federation has been arresting, detaining and outright kidnapping many Ukrainians, including journalist as bloggers. In some cases they do not even want to admit that they are holding them – even when it is very well documented that they do.

To combat this, it is important to ensure that those being held by Russia are not forgotten, and to let the Russian authorities know, that we know that they are holding them prisoner – even when they don’t want to acknowledge it openly.

Therefore several politicians act as “ambassadors” for some of those held, putting out their names and faces, to ensure they are not forgotten – and writing to them. The letters are both meant to show those being held, that they are not forgotten – and to let the Russian authorities know, that there are eyes on the case.

This letter is one such letter, and is sent to the Ukrainian journalist Anastasiia Hlukhovska, as well as to the Ombudsman of the Russian Federation, the acting Russian representative to the EU – and with a copy to the head of the foreign service of the EU, Kaja Kallas.

The letter

Dearest Anastasiia Hlukhovska

My name is Per Clausen, and I writing you from the European Parliament in Brussels.

While you may not know me personally yet, we actually have many friends in common. Friends who have told me about you and the tragic situation you are in. It is a situation no one should find themselves in, and one you certainly do not deserve. A situation, that I will also do my best to make sure gets more attention.

One of the many things I know about you, is that on the night of August 19-20, 2023, when you were 30 years old, Russian security forces abducted you from your apartment in occupied Melitopol.

I also know, that before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, you worked as a journalist for the local news outlet RIA-Melitopol, and I know that the Russian forces detained you violently in 2023, and even featured you in one of their propaganda videos, where they claimed to have uncovered several Ukrainian intelligence networks. This is the same video, that showed when armed med stormed your apartment in the middle of the night and led you away in handcuffs. A video that also clearly shows that Russia is completely responsible for your disappearance and wellbeing. It was a dark night, during which between 30 and 50 other people were also taken. Some of these were later charged and sentenced to 15-20 years in prison after sham trials.

I know, that while others were given a trial, and thereby an official recognition by the Russian occupying forces that they held them, this was not the case for you. I know, that since then you have hardly been seen. I know that your mother travelled everywhere, desperately searching for her. I know this and that your sister Diana has been there supporting your mother and doing her best to ensure that Russians do not succeed in letting your slip away from the memory of the world.

I know, that for some time you were held in the city of Taganrog in the Rostov region, in Pre-trial Detention Center No. 2, but also that you were later taken away from there to an undisclosed location. I know we have received a few reports of your whereabouts from others, which is also why I write you at this address

I know all this, and I know your name is Anastasiia Hlukhovska.

I also know that a situation in which silence from the outside world on your abduction and illegal detention, is a form of complicity with the crimes being committed against you. It is a silence I will do my best to break, and I guess that is why our common friends have told me so me so much about you, that it feels like I have known you for years. Knowledge that, of course, only makes me even more determined to make sure you are heard, seen – and soon will be allowed to breathe in freedom again, and hug your mother and your sister.

I know that one of the cruel things people can do to others, is to try to make them disappear. Hold them without charge or even acknowledgement to the outside world or their families that they are being held. This, we shall never allow to happen, and a first step is that I will write you again and again. At least until the day that you are free again.

One last thing, before I end this first letter to you: While this is letter is from me to you, I have taken the liberty to send a copy of it to three people who I think should also be informed about you and your situation: The European Union’s High Representative on Foreign Affairs, the Russian Ambassador to the EU, and the Ombudsman of the Russian Federation. I do this, in the hope that reason may prevail, and that you will not have to spend yet another Christmas locked away incognito somewhere in a Russian prison -I hope you will not hold that against me, when we finally meet.

Dearest Anastasiia, I hope to hear back from you soon, and that the day when we can welcome you back into freedom will come soon.

With the warmest of regards,

Per Clausen, Member of the European Parliament for Denmark

European Parliament

ASP 7H242

60 Rue Wiertz

B-1047 Bruxelles

Belgium

See the letter

Here you can also see a scan of the actual letter, in both its English original and in a translation to Russian. Both were sent by registered mail, but we are still to receive a reply or recognition of receipt.

Scanned letters to Anastasiia Hlukhovska