Content warning: This material contains examples of hate speech, sexualized abuse, and threats of violence. We publish them deliberately, to document and explain how these attacks operate.
Yana Chumachenko, editor-in-chief of the online outlet SD.UA (a portal covering Siverskodonetsk) is regularly targeted by online attacks from pro-Russian and separatist Telegram channels linked to occupied Luhansk Region. She told Women in Media about her experience.
A coordinated campaign: systematic attacks since 2022
The attacks are directed both at her personally and at the editorial team as a whole. According to Chumachenko, they have been a constant since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022 — the same year she fled Siverskodonetsk with her family, shortly before the city fell under occupation. Before that, she had lived in Luhansk, which Russia occupied back in April 2014.
“The occupiers keep tabs on what we do. In the early days they made more of an effort to actually analyze our work. In 2024, for example, a string of their Telegram channels ran pieces on us, calling us an ‘info-dumpster,’ ‘presstitutes,’ and ‘shit-stirrers.’ They posted our photos,” Chumachenko says.
One such attack in 2024 was documented by Women in Media on the incident map published on their website.
The channels reacted to an SD.UA story about occupation authorities painting the city’s landmark stele in the colors of the Russian flag — at which point the outlet was branded an “info-dumpster for mankurts.” They also mocked a piece on fallen Ukrainian soldiers.
“The occupiers would come into our audience surveys and hurl abuse at us. They’ve known about us and our social media for a long time. When they posted our photos, commenters wrote that we had ‘Banderite infection,’” Chumachenko says.
She shows screenshots of messages submitted through the outlet’s audience survey forms. They include direct death wishes — “shut up and stop lying,” “shoot yourselves and die, you fucking figs.”
The most recent wave of attacks came in late March 2026, when several pro-Russian Telegram channels simultaneously published identical posts claiming to have “exposed” a Ukrainian information operations Telegram channel.
The posts alleged: “The resource ‘Severodonetsk Online’ was created and curated by Anastasiia Nidchenko. It was edited by Luhansk native Yana Mostovaia […] They have essentially become ordinary cheap instruments of Kyiv propaganda.”
The posts were spread by channels that openly use Russian state symbols. The editorial team is deliberately not naming the channels to avoid amplifying them.
“That day I personally became a ‘star’ of the occupation channels. Their post was riddled with factual errors — and the text itself reads like someone’s overheated fantasy. Even basic fact-checking proved beyond them. Maybe that’s because they’ve started bringing in younger people,” Chumachenko adds.
She also notes that in March 2026, one of the channels announced the launch in Luhansk of a project called “Cyber Druzhyna of the People’s Front,” supposedly dedicated to such so-called “exposés.”
Chumachenko says seeing her name and photo on pro-Russian platforms fills her with revulsion, especially because of the risks it poses to relatives still living in temporarily occupied territories. She is also aware that some of her personal information is publicly available.
“I have no intention of hiding. I’ve stated my position clearly and repeatedly. I’m curious who these pathetic posts are even aimed at, since even former colleagues who live and work in the temporarily occupied territories know none of it is true,” she adds.
A gap in state response: online violence falls through the cracks
This points to a policy failure: much of the digital aggression that Russian actors direct at women journalists today is not classified or investigated as a distinct category of offense.
This includes systematic discrediting campaigns, coordinated information attacks, threats, hate speech, and disinformation — all of which can have independent legal consequences and can also create conditions for subsequent physical violence.
The Verkhovna Rada has recently established a Temporary Investigative Commission to investigate crimes committed by the armed formations of the Russian Federation against journalists and other media workers.
Its mandate, however, focuses primarily on documenting and analyzing serious physical violations: deliberate killings, bodily injury, abductions, torture, unlawful detention, and similar crimes carried out by Russian forces against journalists.
Within this framework, technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), including online attacks against women journalists, has not been identified as a distinct subject for systematic analysis and response by the TIC.
This creates a regulatory and institutional gap: a significant share of incidents affecting journalists’ safety and freedom of expression risk falling outside the scope of parliamentary control, proper legal classification, and specialized mechanisms for addressing Russia’s digital crimes.
In light of international standards on the protection of journalists and the prevention of violence, including the Council of Europe’s approach to accountability for technology-facilitated gender-based violence (Recommendation CM/Rec(2026)2 of the Committee of Ministers to member States, adopted on 4 April 2026) and Ukraine’s obligations under its EU accession process, there is a strong case for broadening the definitions and legal classification of crimes against journalists.
The Verkhovna Rada’s Temporary Investigative Commission plays a key role here as a parliamentary oversight tool for investigating such crimes. Yet its current mandate does not provide for the systematic consideration of TFGBV, including online attacks as a form of pressure and as offenses linked to Russia’s armed aggression.
This points to the need to integrate TFGBV approaches into the TIC’s work, in particular by expanding the understanding of contemporary forms of pressure on journalists as part of the broader spectrum of crimes that affect their safety and freedom of expression.
If you are a journalist who has experienced online violence and needs support, write to ngo.womeninmedia@gmail.com Women in Media NGO provides information and advocacy support, free cybersecurity consultations, psychological assistance, legal support, and other services on request.