Free Media Awards 2020
Stanislav Aseyev - Ukraine

Stanislav Aseyev is a well-known journalist and writer from Donetsk in Ukraine.

In 2017 he was detained by separatist forces and tortured in captivity. Until then, his reports – written under a false name – were an important source of information about life behind the front in eastern Ukraine. In a series titled “Letter from Donbass”, Radio Free Europe published roughly 50 reports from the occupied Donetsk written by Stanislav Aseyev under the pseudonym of Jerry Toms. In December 2019, Stanislav Aseyev was released during a large-scale prisoner exchange.