Accessibility links

Breaking News

RFE/RL Freelance Correspondent Polina Efimova Detained In Russia


According to colleagues, police detained Polina Efimova while she was interviewing Ukrainian refugees in the Russian city of Taganrog. (file photo)
According to colleagues, police detained Polina Efimova while she was interviewing Ukrainian refugees in the Russian city of Taganrog. (file photo)

RFE/RL freelance correspondent Polina Efimova has been detained in the Russian city of Taganrog as she was talking to refugees from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which is under siege by Russian armed forces.

Efimova’s colleagues told the Novaya gazeta newspaper that she was detained when interviewing refugees from Mariupol in a bus near the Sports Palace in Taganrog on March 23.

According to her colleagues, police detained Efimova after she said that she did not have documents with her to prove that she was a journalist.

Mariupol, which had a population of 400,000 before the war, has been reduced to rubble, with thousands of civilians dead and many more seeking a route out of the city to safety amid constant bombardment by Russian forces.

For the past two weeks, Russia has attempted to encircle Mariupol, an important port on the Sea of Azov and the most contentious battleground in the war so far.

With reporting by Novaya gazeta and OVD-Info

RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.

If you are in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine and hold a Russian passport or are a stateless person residing permanently in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine, please note that you could face fines or imprisonment for sharing, liking, commenting on, or saving our content, or for contacting us.

To find out more, click here.

XS
SM
MD
LG