~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, 3,035 Ukrainian citizens were returned to Ukraine, including 150 civilians.

Server Zekiriaiev, a Crimean Tatar illegally convicted in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case, has been held in a cell-type facility for two months and is not allowed to see his family, Crimean Solidarity reports citing the prisoner's wife, Zarema Zekiriaieva.

The administration of penal colony No. 1 decided to keep him in the cell-type room on November 26, 2023.

The only prisoner from the temporarily occupied Crimea (Qırım) is subjected to increasingly harsh conditions of detention.

"Server Zekiriaiev spent almost the entire last year in the disciplinary isolation ward, a cell-type room, and a maximum security unit," says his wife.

The last time she saw her husband was in September 2022. The colony justifies such detention conditions by arguing that Zekiriaiev was illegally convicted under the article under which he was sentenced.

It will be recalled that on October 11, 2017, FSS officers detained six Crimean Tatars in Bakhchysarai (Bağçasaray) — Server Zekiriaiev, along with Tymur Ibrahimov, Marlen (Suleiman) Asanov, Memet Belialov, Seiran Saliiev and Ernes Ametov. 

Edem Smaiilov and Server Mustafaiev were detained a year later in this case. They are accused of alleged involvement in the political organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, banned in Russia.

After a long stage, the Crimean activist and artist Bohdan Ziza was brought to the Vladimir Central Prison in Russia, the Crimean Human Rights Group reports.

On September 27, 2023, the Russian Military Court of Appeal upheld Ziza's sentence. After that, the prisoner was transferred from Novocherkassk. During the transfer, he temporarily stayed in colony No. 29 in Perm.

It will be recalled that on May 16, 2022, Bohdan Ziza poured yellow and blue paint on the building of the temporary occupation administration of Yevpatoriia (Kezlev). On June 6, 2023, a Russian court sentenced him to 15 years in prison on charges of "terrorism".

The Vladimir Central Prison is a well-known Russian prison for particularly dangerous crimes. Ukrainian political prisoners are now being held there. Among them are Oleh Prykhodko, Ihor Kupych, Asan Akhtemov, Appaz Kurtamet, Amet Suleimanov and others.

A so-called "court" in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region has sentenced Ukrainian soldier Yurii Mozhovyi to 18 years in prison. An unnamed Russian court also handed down an illegal sentence of life imprisonment to Vasyl Tkachuk, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported.

The soldier is accused of allegedly killing civilians in the temporarily occupied Mariupol.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Tkachuk went missing on March 25, 2022, in the temporarily occupied Mariupol. There is no information about Mozhovyi in the Ukrainian Unified Register of Persons Missing in Special Circumstances. 

It will be recalled that the Geneva Conventions treat such 'trials' of prisoners of war as a crime.

The illegally detained Kyrylo Barannyk, a master of sports in orienteering, has been added to the Russian register of financial monitoring of terrorists and extremists, the Russian human rights media project AvtozakLIVE reported.

Earlier, it became known that the Russians had toughened the "charges" against Kyrylo Barannyk in the case of the undermining of railway tracks in the temporarily occupied Crimea (Qırım). 

The Kremlin's prisoner's charges for the so-called sabotage were replaced with two more severe ones — "high treason" and "participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation". The prisoner could face life imprisonment.

It will be recalled that Kyrylo Barannyk was detained in the temporarily occupied Simferopol (Aqmescit) on May 30, 2023. During the first interrogation, Barannyk admitted that he was involved in damaging the railway tracks near Poshtove.

A Russian military court in Rostov-on-Don has extended the term of imprisonment in a pre-trial detention centre for five Crimean Tatars from the Dzhankoi district of the temporarily occupied Crimea (Qırım), Crimean Solidarity reported citing his lawyer, Lilia Hemedzhi.

It concerns Ekrem Krosh, Aider Asanov, Leman Zekeriaiev, Osman Abdurazakov and Refat Seidematov.

The court, among other things, ignored Zekeriaiev's need for urgent surgery. Hemedzhi said she would appeal the court's decision.

During the trial, the Russians interviewed a secret witness with the pseudonym Hafarov. According to the defender of the Crimean Tatars, the man answered with ready-made statements.

The five prisoners are suspected of involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation, banned in Russia. 

It will be recalled that the staff of the Crimean Detention Centre No. 2 mocked and beat illegally detained Ekrem Krosh. Zekeriaiev Leman also confirmed being subjected to forceful measures.