~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, 3,135 Ukrainian citizens were returned to Ukraine, including 150 civilians.

Crimean Solidarity reports.

Crimean Tatar Emine Zekerayeva is on trial for 'failure to report a crime'. She is accused of communicating on the Russian social network VKontakte with Ukrainian citizen Madina Striapchi. According to the Russian 'investigation', Striapchi travelled to Syria, where she joined an 'armed group'. 

Emine Zekeriaieva's defence requested that Madina Striapchi's account activity, geolocation, and shared data be reviewed. The defence wants to prove that Madina Striapchi is not a real person but possibly a 'project' of the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service — ed.). The 'court' refused to do so.

The case against Emine for 'failure to report a crime' is the fifth case against Crimean Tatars in the temporarily occupied Crimea. The occupation court is conducting similar cases against Enver Topcha, Ridvan Umerov, Ayder Kadyrov and Ayder Ablyakimov.

Zmina Human Rights Centre reports.

The so-called 'LPR' prosecutor's office sent a criminal case against 51-year-old Oleksandr Sokolov to the Occupation Supreme Court. They believe that Sokolov voluntarily collected information about the movement and location of Russian military personnel and the routes of military convoys in the Luhansk region. He passed this information to the Ukrainian special services via messengers.

Oleksandr Sokolov is charged with espionage and public incitement to extremist activities. He faces up to 20 years in prison on these charges.

According to the 'DPR' FSB, between February and March 2024, a 27-year-old man posted videos and comments on social media that 'humiliated the human dignity of Russian citizens'.

He was arrested and detained. 

This was reported by the Memorial community. 

Konstantin Yevmenenko, from Yalta, and Oleksandr Lytvynenko, from the temporarily occupied Kherson region, were charged with 'preparation of terrorist attacks by a group of persons', 'illegal storage of explosives' and 'high treason'. They were sentenced to 9.5 years in a strict regime colony and fined 500,000 rubles (~$5730 — ed.).

This was reported by the Memorial community. 

The Southern District Court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced Ukrainian Stanislav Hrudnenko to five years in a strict regime colony for 'preparing a terrorist attack' and 'possession of explosives'.

Russian investigators found that Grudnenko had allegedly 'transferred the place of storage of explosives' and 'intended to organise terrorist attacks in three places of residence' of the Russian military in the temporarily occupied Tokmak.

Crimean Solidarity reports.

The Moscow Regional Court of Appeal left Crimean Tatar activist Enver Krosh, Crimean Solidarity correspondent Vilen Temeryanov, Rinat Aliyev and Edem Bekirov in custody until August 29, 2024. Another defendant in the case, Seityag Abbozov, will remain under house arrest. They are involved in the case of the 'First Dzhankoi' group of Hizb ut-Tahrir (an international Islamic political party recognised as a terrorist organisation in Russia — ed).

They were arrested in 2022 in Dzhankoi (Canköy). The Russian occupation court in Crimea charged the Crimean Tatars with 'participation in a terrorist organisation'. Since then, they have been held in pre-trial detention. The defence requested a review of the 'unjustified' detention. The first instance court refused, and now the appeal court has upheld the detention.

The ECHR unanimously found that in the temporarily occupied Crimea, Russia is harshly and illegally arresting and detaining Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, imposing its laws, closing down non-Russian media, persecuting religious leaders and civil society activists, banning peaceful assemblies and violating the rights of political prisoners. 

"Today, on June 25, 2024, the judgment essentially nullifies Russia's decades-long claims that human rights are respected in Crimea," said Marharyta Sokorenko, the Ukrainian Commissioner to the European Court of Human Rights.