Kirill Vyshinsky, a journalist. Biography

Kirill Vyshinsky was born on February 19, 1967 in Dnepropetrovsk. He studied at the Faculty of Philology of Dnepropetrovsk State University named after the 300th anniversary of the Reunification of Ukraine with Russia from 1987 to 1991. After receiving his education, he worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature.

Later, in the second half of the 1990s, he took up journalism. From 1996 to 1998, Vyshinsky was the editor-in-chief at Dnepropetrovsk's Channel 11, and from 1999 to 2006 he was an editor at ICTV. He was the author of the TV projects "Street Television", "In fact", as well as the editor-in-chief of the information service and the program "In Detail" with Dmitry Kiselyov.

From 2006 to 2014, Vyshinsky was a journalist for the Vesti program on the Russian channel Rossiya-1.

After the coup in Ukraine in 2014, he became the head of the RIA Novosti Ukraine portal, which was the information partner of MIA Rossiya Segodnya.

In 2015, Kirill Vyshinsky was granted Russian citizenship.

On May 15, 2018, in Kiev, Vyshinsky was detained by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). He was accused of treason and conducting subversive information activities against Ukraine, in particular for "justifying the annexation of Crimea," "information support" for the proclaimed Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics, as well as involving journalists and citizens of Ukraine in "subversive activities." On May 17, 2018, the journalist was arrested. He spent more than a year in prison. On August 28, 2019, the Kiev Court of Appeal changed his measure of restraint from arrest to release on personal bail. On September 7, 2019, Vyshinsky was released as part of a Russian-Ukrainian exchange and arrived in Moscow.

Vyshinsky wrote a book about his time in a Ukrainian prison, "I Lived Opposite the Prison."

On October 7, 2019, Kirill Vyshinsky was appointed Executive Director of MIA Rossiya Segodnya. Also in 2019, he became a member of the Human Rights Council.

On October 23, 2023, Vyshinsky was appointed editor-in-chief of Sputnik Radio.

In addition, Vyshinsky was the author and presenter of the programs "Typical Ukraine", "1/6", "Typical Novorossiya" on the channel "Russia-24".

Vyshinsky actively fought for the rights of journalists in Ukraine and the Baltic States, and spoke at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Kirill Vyshinsky — awards

Vyshinsky was awarded the medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, first Class, as well as the medal for the Return of Crimea.

Kirill Vyshinsky — death

Kirill Vyshinsky's death became known on August 23, 2025. The journalist died at the age of 59.

In an interview with Izvestia, Ashot Jazoyan, Secretary of the Union of Journalists, spoke about Kirill Vyshinsky's steadfastness and dignity.

"First of all, he was a wonderful journalist. You know, he's so calm, but with such inner strength, balanced. What he went through in Ukraine, and how he came out with dignity, and how he even created these programs, while continuing to speak very interestingly, well, thoughtfully about Ukraine, about the people, about these traditions and cultures. That is, he was not angry at the authorities, at what was being done to him. He continued to express his attitude towards the true Ukraine," Jazoyan said.

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