~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 218 illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens, 133 of whom are Qırımtatarlar.
During the full-scale war, 3,330 Ukrainian citizens were returned to Ukraine, including 160 civilians.
Russian 'court' finds young man from temporarily occupied Snizhne guilty of treason
In July, the Rostov regional court sentenced 19-year-old Danylo Yefimov to twelve years in a maximum security colony and one year of restricted liberty for treason. The young man had transferred RUB 13,000 to the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation, according to the Russian human rights project First Department.
He was arrested at Volgograd airport in December. The man had a Ukrainian passport for international travel and was trying to fly from Russia to Turkey. The police detained him because he did not have a Russian passport and found a Ukrainian bank app on his phone and the transfers to the Serhiy Prytula Foundation. He also donated money to Russian volunteers evacuating Ukrainians from the temporarily occupied territories and then from Russia.
He was held in pre-trial detention for six months while the 'trial' was underway. Witnesses in the case — his fellow students and a lecturer — noted that Danylo did not want to live in Russia, did not take part in Russian 'patriotic' educational events and tried to prove that Russia was waging war against Ukraine, not 'protecting the people of Donbas'.
Human rights activists demand release of seriously ill political prisoner Tofik Abdulhaziiev
The ZMINA Human Rights Centre reports.
In July 2023, Tofik Abdulhaziiev was transferred to Verkhnouralsk prison in the Chelyabinsk region of the Russian Federation, 2,700 km from his home. Immediately after the transfer, he suffered weight loss and severe joint pain.
He is in a serious condition. In March 2024, Abdulhaziiev's health deteriorated sharply, and he was taken in critical condition to the Chelyabinsk prison tuberculosis hospital No. 3, where he was admitted to intensive care two weeks later. Abdulhaziiev was later diagnosed with eight diseases: tuberculosis, bilateral pneumonia, small left-sided hydrothorax (fluid in the lungs), anaemia, connective tissue dysplasia syndrome with mitral valve disease (heart disease), chronic heart failure, gastritis, nephrolithiasis (kidney stones). Some of these illnesses are included in the list of illnesses that prevent detention under the legislation of the Russian Federation.
Tofik Abdulhaziiev was an activist with the NGO Crimean Solidarity. He was sentenced to 12 years in a strict regime colony for alleged participation in a terrorist organisation.
Cassation 'court' overturns Lutfiie Zudiieva's fine for failing to label 'foreign agent' on Radio Liberty posts
The Fourth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction in Krasnodar overturned the fine of RUB 2,500 imposed on Crimean Tatar human rights activist and journalist Lutfiie Zudiieva for failing to put a 'foreign agent' marker on her posts mentioning RFE/RL's Belarusian and Ukrainian services, Crimean Solidarity reports.
Earlier, the Kyiv District Court of Simferopol (Aqmescit) convicted Zudiieva under the article on 'abuse of mass media freedom' and imposed a fine of RUB 2,500. During the search, Russian siloviki (Russian security and military personnel) confiscated Zudiieva's laptop and mobile phone.
Azov fighter Ihor Filin sentenced to 26 years in maximum security colony
The ZMINA Human Rights Centre reports.
In the temporarily occupied Donetsk, Ihor Filin, a driver and refueller of the Logistics Platoon of the Azov Special Forces Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard, was sentenced for allegedly killing two civilians in Mariupol on the orders of the commander. The sentence was handed down by the so-called 'Supreme Court of the Donetsk People's Republic'.
Azov serviceman Arsen Dmytryk sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in temporarily occupied Donetsk
A Donetsk ‘court’ found Arsen Dmytryk, a defender of Mariupol, guilty in absentia of the alleged mortar attack on private houses in Mariupol, which resulted in people's deaths.
The ZMINA Human Rights Centre reports.
Arsen Dmytryk is a serviceman of the Azov Special Forces Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, a defender of Mariupol. He survived the Russian terrorist attack in Olenivka. On September 21, 2022, he was released from Russian captivity.
Russians illegally detain journalist Iryna Levchenko in Melitopol
Her sister Olena told Novyny Pryazovia, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service project.
Iryna Levchenko is being held illegally in one of the torture chambers in the temporarily occupied city of Melitopol. She is fed dry rations twice a day and allowed to go for walks.
Iryna and her husband Oleksandr were abducted by the Russians in Melitopol on May 6, 2023. At first, they were kept together, but later they were separated. Oleksandr's whereabouts are still unknown. They are accused of 'terrorism'.
