Early in the morning of 20 August 2023, in temporarily occupied Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia region), Russian security forces detained Anastasiia Hlukhovska, a journalist for the online publication RIA-Melitopol. On 27 October, propaganda media aired a video in which armed people in masks come to Hlukhovska's apartment, conduct a search and take her away in an unknown direction. The journalist's face was not visible in the released footage, but relatives were able to identify her. A number of Hlukhovska's colleagues were also detained that day: Vladyslav Gershon, Heorhii Levchenko, Oleksandr Malyshev, Maksym Rupchev and Yana Suvorova (subsequently they were charged with "espionage" and "participation in a terrorist community").

First, Hlukhovska was held in the basement of the "Ruslan-Komplekt" enterprise, where she was tortured with electric shocks. According to a cellmate, she often lay silent, unable to get up. After this, the journalist was sent to the Pre-Trial Detention Centre in the village of Pryazovske, 30 kilometres from Melitopol, and then to Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 2 in Taganrog (Rostov region). In the pre-trial detention centre, Hlukhovska's conjunctivitis worsened due to poor hygienic conditions, and her weight began to fluctuate significantly due to hormonal changes. In October 2025, journalists managed to confirm that Hlukhovska was being held in Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 3 in the city of Kizel, Perm Krai. This was reported by other prisoners who were in the same detention facility. Since her detention in August 2023, the journalist has been held in incommunicado status. Two Ukrainian civilian prisoners are known to have died in this detention facility: journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna and Yevhen Matvieiev, the head of Dniprorudne in the Zaporizhzhia region. The facility will confine people in a so-called "rezinka" — a torture cell entirely lined with rubber, without windows or a toilet, where people are held naked.

In response to inquiries from Hlukhovska's lawyer, the FSIN replied that they had no information about the journalist's whereabouts, and the FSB and the Investigative Committee deny that there is any criminal case against Hlukhovska. Whether any charges have been brought against the journalist remains unknown.

The independent human rights project "Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial" has recognized Anastasiia Hlukhovska as a political prisoner.