Ukrainian journalist who was held by Russia wins high Europe rights prize

The Council of Europe on Monday (September 29, 2025) awarded its 2025 rights prize to Ukrainian journalist and rights activist Maksym Butkevych, who was launched final yr after being captured by Russian forces.

Butkevych, co-founder of the unbiased Hromadske radio station and ZMINA human rights centre in Kyiv, joined the Ukrainian military in March 2022, then was detained in June and convicted of conflict crimes by a court docket in Lugansk in Russian-controlled japanese Ukraine in March 2023.

He was sentenced to a 13-year jail time period on costs of wounding two civilians whereas firing an anti-tank grenade launcher within the japanese metropolis of Severodonetsk, however he was launched throughout an October 2024 prisoner change.

“This is no coincidence,” stated Theodoros Rousopoulos, the pinnacle of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which bestows the award.

“The last few months have proved particularly dangerous for journalists,” he stated, including that 171 journalists have been in detention in Europe originally of the yr, together with not less than 26 Ukrainians detained in Russia or within the territories occupied by Moscow in Ukraine.

The award is called after the late Czech dissident, playwright and post-communist president Vaclav Havel.

Previous winners embody the Venezuelan opposition determine Maria Corina Machado in 2024 and Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza in 2022.