~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 209 illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens, 126 of whom are Qırımtatarlar.
During the full-scale war, 3,135 Ukrainian citizens were returned to Ukraine, including 150 civilians.
In the Donskoy Maximum Security Penal Colony, Russians carved the letters Z on Ukrainian prisoners of war's cheeks, starved and beat them
Employees of the Russian penal colony No. 1 in the city of Donskoy, Tula region, have been abusing Ukrainian prisoners.
Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR), which collected testimonies of the released soldiers, reports.
The Kremlin's prisoners were held in harsh conditions, starved, tortured with electric shocks, and constantly beaten.
In May 2022, approximately two hundred Ukrainian citizens were transferred to Donskoy from various places of detention. They included military personnel and civilians captured in the Chernihiv, Kyiv, Sumy and other regions.
One of the former prisoners told the MIHR that the guards in the colony carved the letter 'Z' on the cheeks of the captured Ukrainian military conscripts with a rusty nail. The prisoners were not allowed to sleep, drink or eat. There were more than 20 prisoners in cells designed for six. They underwent repeated tortures with electric shocks.
The prisoners even had to remove tattoos if they had any.
"In our cell, three guys had tattoos... The second one had 'For the Airborne Forces' on his arm because he used to serve in the airborne troops... they forced him to remove it. They gave him two days to do it. There had been prisoners in our cell before us, and they left small, sharp blades. So he cut it off, removing the skin,"
a former prisoner of war named Ivan told MIHR.
Donskoy, Russia, is less than 600 km from the Ukrainian border. Donskoy Maximum Security Penal Colony No. 1 has operated since the mid-1950s on the premises of a local mine. Ukrainian prisoners were first brought there in May 2022.
It will be recalled that employees of the Crimean Detention Centre No. 2 mocked and beat illegally detained Ekrem Krosh.
A 71-year-old Ukrainian man, illegally detained for 'espionage' in the temporarily occupied Donetsk region, dies in Russia
A 71-year-old prisoner who was accused of "espionage" and "participation in a terrorist organisation" has died in Russia.
The Russian human rights organisation Memorial writes.
According to the court's website, the case was closed due to the death of the prosecuted. Demchenko allegedly died in a pre-trial detention centre in the Rostov region.
Before his arrest, the man lived in the temporarily occupied Donetsk region.
"Very little is known about the defendant in the case and the prosecution itself - Demchenko was born in 1952 in Mospyne and lived there. Since 2014, Mospyne has been under the control of the so-called 'Donetsk People's Republic' [illegal armed group]. There is no information on whether he has any close relatives or where they might live,"
the Memorial said.
The Russian propaganda agency TASS, citing its sources, says that Demchenko died in a prison hospital in Rostov of a stroke on December 31, 2023.
Russians in the temporarily occupied Crimea (Qırım) refuse to disclose the location of the missing Farhad Soliiev
Employees of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Sevastopol (Aqyar) have established the whereabouts of Farhad Soliiev, who was taken away in an unknown direction on November 3, 2023.
Crimean Solidarity informs with reference to the prisoner's mother Lenara Seidaliieva.
The occupation "law enforcement" does not provide the exact location. The letter from the Ministry of Internal Affairs department head, Alexander Perepilitsa, states that "no illegal actions were committed against Farhad". At the same time, he is not allowed to contact his lawyer.
Perepelitsa also added that "the inspection materials containing data on Soliiev's whereabouts" were attached to the case.
On November 3, 2023, Farhad Soliiev and his colleague Server Aliiev were taken to an unknown destination by Russian Federal Security Service (FSS) representatives.
After the abduction, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to open a criminal case, as the FSS allegedly "has the right to detain men for 15 days".
Earlier, the acting deputy head of the Investigation Department of the Russian Interior Ministry in Sevastopol, Roman Degtyarev, stated that the Sevastopol police had not detained Soliev, no criminal case had been opened against him, and no investigative actions had been carried out.
Oleh Prykhodko, whose 4.5 years of illegal 'imprisonment' were added to his sentence, is to be transferred even further in Russia
Kremlin prisoner Oleh Prykhodko, who was added 4.5 months to his sentence in November 2023, is to be transferred from a Russian prison even further.
Natalia Shevtsova, the Crimean prisoner's daughter, told Suspilne.Krym.
"They plan to transfer him further because they added another 4.5 years to his sentence. On November 8, they added another 4.5 years to his sentence. Now there is an appeal, and after the appeal, most likely, he will be sent somewhere, I don't know, to the Urals or some ‘swamps’. We can't do anything. We hired a lawyer. We hired a Russian lawyer. He came, winced and left," she said.
Now Oleh Prykhodko is in Detention Centre 1, Krasnodar. There are 29 people with him in a cell with 20 beds. The prisoners take turns sleeping and are constantly sick, yet they are denied medical care. The Russians refuse to allow the family to send parcels to the prisoner.
Shevtsova also mentioned that several Ukrainians from the temporarily occupied territories were imprisoned with her father.
"Prisoners from near Kherson were also transferred to Krasnodar and remain in a cell there. There are 35 people in a cell there. They were moved from colonies to Krasnodar and Rostov. And he tells us that they take turns sleeping. Someone sleeps during the day, someone sleeps at night,"
adds the daughter of an illegally detained man.
Russian appellate court upholds sentence of journalist from temporarily occupied Nova Kakhovka
A Russian court has rejected an appeal against the sentence of journalist Serhii Tsyhipa, who is accused of "espionage".
The Crimean Process says.
The defendant's name is not specified in the court case ruling, but it became known that the verdict in the case was announced on October 6, 2023.
"On that day, the press service of the Supreme Court of Crimea (Qırım) issued a statement that a journalist from Nova Kakhovka, Serhii Tsyhipa, had been found guilty... On that day, no other cases under Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation were considered in the Crimean court," the human rights activists say.
In a commentary to Suspilne, the prisoner's wife, Olena Tsyhipa, said that her husband had developed a tumour. Despite this, he is to be transferred to Russia to a maximum security colony. For now, the location is unknown.
"He is not feeling very well. He's always had problems with blood pressure and heart, and now he's got a tumour on his back. Serhii wrote that he had been to the doctor, but [he] said it was no big deal, just a lump of fat, and left. That was the end of the diagnosis and medical examination,"
said the detainee's wife.
Serhii Tsyhipa is a journalist, civil activist and Anti-Terrorist Operation (launched by Ukraine in response to Russia's invasion of the east in 2014) veteran from the temporarily occupied Nova Kakhovka, Kherson region. After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he took part in pro-Ukrainian rallies and reported on Russian actions in the south as a journalist.
On February 24, 2022, he created the project Information Self-Defence of Nova Kakhovka. On March 12, he was kidnapped and accused of 'espionage'. The so-called 'court' in Crimea sentenced Serhii Tsyhipa to 13 years.
So-called 'court' in temporarily occupied Donetsk region sentences four Ukrainian prisoners of war
Russians have sentenced four Ukrainian prisoners of war in the temporarily occupied Donetsk region.
The press service of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reports.
These are Ukrainian servicemen Maksym Chernushenko, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Andrii Kaiirskyi and Vladyslav Liashuk, who were sentenced to 28 years in prison each, and Andrii Balykin, who was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
Russia accuses the military of allegedly killing civilians in the temporarily occupied Mariupol, Donetsk region.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kaiirskyi went missing in March 2022 in the then-bestieged Mariupol, while Chernushenko, Balykin and Liashuk went missing in April.
It will be recalled that the Geneva Conventions treat such 'trials' of prisoners of war as a crime.
