~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, 3,672 Ukrainian citizens, including 167 civilians, were returned to Ukraine.

26-year-old Vadym Shevchenko from Polohy, Zaporizhzhia region, was abducted by Russians at a checkpoint on March 15, 2022. The man was held in Olenivka, Taganrog, and Ryazhsk. He is currently in a penal colony in Mordovia. The detainee's mother reported this in a comment to Zmina.

Vadym was abducted while trying to leave the occupied city with his neighbors. At the last checkpoint before the territory controlled by Ukraine, he was dropped off and taken in an unknown direction. In September 2022, Shevchenko's family accidentally came across a video of Vadym. According to his mother, her son had lost a lot of weight. In the video, he said that he was fine, being fed and receiving medical care: “I am currently in captivity. I love you very much. I hope to see you soon. Everything will be fine.”

Later, the woman learned from the Ukrainians released from captivity that her son had been held at the Melitopol airfield for some time. After that, Vadym was taken to Olenivka, Donetsk region, and from there to Taganrog, Rostov region. 

Vadym's mother still has no contact with him. The woman traveled on an international tour with the Civilians in Captivity NGO, during which she spoke about the mass abductions and forced transfer of Ukrainian civilians from the occupied territories to Russia.

“The trip was effective. Our stories and tears did not leave the PACE representatives indifferent. It was at this time that they adopted a resolution on the release of civilians submitted by Maria Mezentseva. We were very happy about this. We also met with the President of PACE, representatives of the ICRC, and other European officials. We felt that they were aware of our problem,” Shevchenko says. 

Vladyslav Dobrovolskyi, a 26-year-old resident of the village of Krasiatychi, Kyiv region, was abducted by Russians on March 23, 2022. The man was detained at the Viknaland plant and the Gostomel airport and then taken to Novozibkov, Bryansk region of the Russian Federation. Now Vladislav is allegedly being held in Mordovia, as reported by the prisoner's mother to the Zmina Human Rights Center. 

According to the mother, Inna Dobrovolska, her son and other Ukrainians captured with him were constantly beaten and abused. Currently, she has lost contact with her son.

“I know that Vladyslav was in Mordovia a year ago. Currently, I have no information about him or his whereabouts. He is being abused in the same way as the military. Former prisoners of war who were in the same cell with him said that Russians treat civilians badly,” says Dobrovolska.

An illegal court in occupied Melitopol has convicted Serhii Korzh from Enerhodar and Serhii Popov from Melitopol for alleged espionage. Zmina reports this. 

Korzh and Popov were accused of collecting and transmitting data on the location of equipment and personnel of Russian military units and then transferring this information to the Defense Intelligence Service of Ukraine. The illegal court sent the Enerhodar resident to a strict regime colony for 13 years and the Melitopol resident for 12 years. Before the full-scale war, Korzh worked as an engineer at the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the sentence of seven soldiers of the 36th Marine Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who were convicted of allegedly beating a Russian prisoner of war and attempting to kill a civilian resident of Mariupol. The court's press service reported this. 

The detainees are Artem Buchkovskyi, Vladyslav Striukov, Illia Halchukov, Vladyslav Serhiichuk, Serhii Knyzhnyk, Serhii Kryvtsun, and Oleksandr Matushanskyi. The prisoners of war were sentenced to 16 to 22 years in a strict regime colony.

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don imprisoned Sevastopol (Aqyar) resident Andrii Yeniukov for ten years, Zmina reports. 

Yeniukov will spend the first three years in prison and the rest in a maximum security colony. The Russians accused him of intending to set fire to a fuel and lubricants warehouse in the village of Sakharna Holovka, Balaklava district of Sevastopol (Aqyar), and a humanitarian aid center for IDPs from the occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. He is also accused of running several pro-Ukrainian channels on his telegram. 

Andrii is 21 and converted to Islam, taking the name Abdullah. The man actively criticized the Putin regime and the occupation of Crimea (Qırım) on social media. At first, Yeniukov was kept in solitary confinement in Simferopol's (Aqmescit) SIZO-2, and later he was transferred to Rostov-on-Don. Andrii's relatives reported that the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation — ed.) tortured Andrii with electric shock to extract a confession.

A Russian occupation “court” sentenced a resident of the temporarily occupied Henichesk, Huseyn Huseynov, to three years and six months in prison for allegedly participating in the Noman Çelebicihan Crimean Tatar volunteer battalion. This was reported by the media outlet "Raion.Henichesk."

Huseyn will spend part of his sentence in prison and the rest in a strict regime penal colony. According to the occupiers, since 2015, Huseynov has been actively involved in the activities of the battalion, which is considered a terrorist organization in the Russian Federation.