Ekaterina Barabash
Ekaterina Yurievna Barabash is a Ukrainian and Russian journalist who is currently living in exile in France.
Early life
Barabash was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine. When she was five, her father, became the deputy editor-in-chief of Literaturnaya Gazeta and moved the family to Moscow, Russia.Career
Barabash worked for Interfax until 2016; she was fired for criticizing the Kremlin. She also contributed to Radio France Internationale.She later worked for Republic.ru, a Russian media outlet that was banned in 2022, after the fullscale Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
In February 2025, Barabash was arrested by the Russian Investigative Committee after coming back from the Berlin International Film Festival; her son said the charges were likely because of her work. She was charged with spreading false information about Russia's military and faced a 5-10 year prison sentence.
Barabash was placed under house arrest, but disappeared 13 April, with Russian state media describing her as wanted by police. She said she crossed the border out of Russia on 26 April, her birthday.
In May 2025, she arrived in France after fleeing Russia with the assistance of Reporters Without Borders, in what the RSF director described as "one of the most perilous operations" that RSF had been involved in since the beginning of the fullscale invasion. During her escape, she traveled 2,800 kilometers and at one point needed to go fully offline, losing all contact with RSF.