~Russia illegally detains 25,000 Kremlin prisoners

According to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, this is the number of civilians abducted by the Russian Federation.

The ZMINA Human Rights Centre has found that at least 21 prisoners require urgent medical care and may die unless they receive it.

During the full-scale invasion, the National Police began investigating the enforced disappearance of 8,800 people. Russian Children's Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova claims Russia has illegally abducted over 700,000 children from Ukraine.

The Media Initiative for Human Rights has identified about one hundred places where abducted civilians are held.

The Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Qırım) confirms 217 illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens, 132 of whom are Qırımtatarlar.

During the full-scale war, 3,445 Ukrainian citizens were returned to Ukraine.

Crimean political prisoner Riza Omerov, sentenced in 2020 to 13 years in prison in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case, spoke about his vision problems and vitamin deficiency. Crimean Solidarity reports with reference to the political prisoner's wife Sevil Omerova. 

Riza Omerov is being held in a colony in Tsivilsk, Chuvash Republic. The political prisoner talks about the black spots and the blurred patches on his eyes. In addition, there are white spots on Rizi Omerov's body, which are associated with vitamin deficiency due to poor nutrition in the colony. Omerov's family had to personally pay for a private dentist to examine Rizi in the colony, due to the significant deterioration of his teeth.

The prisoner's wife added that in five years, her husband has ‘changed a lot’, but ‘does not lose heart’. The meeting with their father was the first for Rizi's children in 5 years. 

"On the day we parted, the children cried all day. Riza said [with regret] that the children were growing up, but he could not raise them, give them parental guidance, or teach them the Quran. He sent alaikum salam to the jamaat, to every [representative of the people] of the villagers, and expects the political prisoners to return [home] as soon as possible," his wife added.

Civil society journalist Remzi Bekirov, sentenced to 19 years in prison, is under pressure from the prison administration of penal colony 33 in Abakan, Khakassia. Crimean Solidarity reports with reference to the convict's lawyer, Emil Kurbedinov.

The colony authorities forbid the prisoner to write letters or call his family. Due to the distance of 4.5 thousand kilometres, the political prisoner's family cannot visit Remzi. Also, since Bekirov's transfer to the colony, he has been unreasonably transferred to a “correctional” isolation cell several times.

“In fact, this is a form of exile that has been widely practised in the recent history of Russia against the intelligentsia,” Emil Kurbedinov adds.

Remzi Bekirov is a civic journalist who broadcasted live searches and trials in politically motivated cases against Crimean residents, including the case of Vedzhiie Kashko, a veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement, and the Hizb ut-Tahrir case, which resulted in his arrest. Remzi Bekirov initiates the idea of collective assistance to the families of Crimean political prisoners. He has three minor children.

The occupational Supreme Court of the Republic of Crimea dismissed the appeal of lawyer Rustem Kiamilev and his client Eldar Kantimirov, convicted in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case. The political prisoner filed complaints about his repeated unjustified expulsion to the isolation ward of prison No. 1 in Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk region, Crimean Solidarity reports. 

In April this year, Kiamilev and Kantimirov tried to appeal against their expulsion to the isolation ward in the court of first instance. Kantimirov also told the court that the prison authorities did not provide him with a change of clothes according to the season.

The wardens of the Ulyanovsk prison were not satisfied with the fact that the political prisoner did not button his shirt, did not put his hands behind his back, and went to get a mattress in insulated underpants instead of the prison uniform, for which he was transferred to the punishment cell.

In the punishment cell, the political prisoner's health problems worsened. Eldar Kantimirov suffers from pain in the lumbar region and a pinched spinal nerve. The applications he wrote to the medical unit were not satisfied. And the special medical mat he used to relieve his pain was taken away.

“We believe that [our] right [to defence] was grossly violated by the courts. We will not settle for this. We will appeal to the cassation court and seek the truth,” the lawyer said.

On September 3, 2024, Oleksandr Liubas, a serviceman of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, was sentenced to 20 years in a maximum security colony. The occupational courts of Crimea accuse Oleksandr of preparing a terrorist act, illegal border crossing, and smuggling weapons and explosives, Zmina reports. 

Liubas was taken prisoner by Russia in October 2023 during an operation of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine in Crimea. During the operation, the Ukrainian serviceman was injured and fell into the water, but managed to swim to the shore, where he was detained by the Russians. 

According to the Russian Investigative Committee, Serhii Rudyk and Mykola Velychko were imprisoned by the occupation judiciary in Donetsk. Both were captured in Mariupol. 

Serhii Rudyk is an Azov serviceman accused of allegedly ill-treating civilians in Mariupol. He was sentenced to 18 years in a strict regime colony

Mykola Velychko, who was sentenced to 25 years in a maximum security colony, was the commander of the 3rd sniper unit of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He is also accused of allegedly ill-treating civilians and murder committed by a group of people. 

Viktor Ursa, a Jehovah's Witness, a religious organisation banned in Russia, from Dzhankoy (Canköy), has been released from house arrest, the Crimean Human Rights Group reports. 

The 59-year-old man was detained in July 2023. His house was searched and all electronic devices and media were seized. The law enforcement officers refused to show their IDs and were armed.

Ursu spent two weeks in a pre-trial detention centre. His wife was not allowed to see her husband and to give him the necessary things, food or medicine. A criminal case was opened against him under the article on organising the activities of an extremist organisation.

On August 9, 2023, Viktor Ursa was placed under house arrest. Now his preventive measure has been reduced to a pledge not to leave and to behave properly.