~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.

Crimean Tatar activist and human rights defender Riza Izetov, who was sentenced to 19 years in prison in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case, was transferred to penal colony No. 1 of the Sakha Republic. It is located nine thousand kilometers from Crimea (Qırım). Crimean Solidarity reported it.

The mother of the political prisoner Nadiie Izetova wrote a statement with a request to transfer her son to a colony closer to Crimea (Qırım). She noted that a trip to visit her son at such a distance is unbearable for her, both financially and physically. Izetov's mother was diagnosed with cancer. Nadiie Izetova has not seen her son for six years since his imprisonment.

«Neither I nor my sisters will be able to go to Yakutia to see him - they are all over 70 years old. We won't be able to travel that far. I'm in remission, but I don't go far from home. I have a weak immune system, and I am wary of infectious diseases. <...> I have a feeling that I won't live to see his arrival, so I read dua (prayer — ed.) to the Almighty in order to have time to see my son in this world,» the political prisoner's mother said.

Abducted and illegally convicted journalist Serhii Tsyhipa from Nova Kakhovka is being forced to work by the administration of penal colony No. 3 in Skopin, Ryazan region, and is being transferred from a general cell to a punishment cell for refusing to work. The journalist's wife, Olen, told Zmina about this in a commentary

In 2022, Tsyhipa was abducted by Russians from Nova Kakhovka for his active pro-Ukrainian position, journalistic and volunteer activities. He was the organizer of one of the mass events of the townspeople's disobedience to the occupation regime. After his detention, his family lost contact with Serhii for some time. Later, they learned that Tsyhipa was alive and in captivity. 

On October 6, 2023, the so-called «Supreme Court of the Republic of Crimea» sentenced Tsyhipa to 13 years in a maximum security colony. He was charged with alleged espionage. Subsequently, the man was transferred to the strict regime penal colony No. 3 in Skopin, Ryazan region.

The man was transferred to a punishment cell because of candy found in his bedside table or the unfastened top button on his prison robe. In total, Serhii Tsyhipa spent up to 2 days of his total sentence in a common cell. As of now, contact with her husband has been lost again, says the political prisoner's wife

Since the beginning of 2024, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has received at least 75 cases against illegally detained Ukrainians, Zmina reports. Among them, in September, the court received the cases of Fedor Tryfonov, Oleh Zavhorodnii, Mykola Yefremov, Aliona Holtvenko, and Oleksandr Saakian.

Fedor Tryfonov, Oleh Zavhorodnii, and Mykola Yefremov are accused of allegedly preparing terrorist acts, manufacturing and storing explosives, participating in terrorist organizations, etc. Tryfonov and Zavhorodnii were taken into custody in January 2023 in Moscow. 29-year-old Oleh Zavhorodnii is a resident of occupied Berdiansk, and 22-year-old Mykola Yefremov is a resident of the Donetsk region. 

Aliona Holtvenko, a 28-year-old resident of Mariupol, and Oleksandr Saakian, a 30-year-old native of the Vinnytsia region, are also accused of allegedly preparing terrorist attacks and participating in terrorist organizations. Saakian is also charged with «espionage» and «forgery of documents.» The Russians claim that the detainee has been participating in hostilities since 2014 and is a member of the Azov military.

Akim Bekirov, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison, was transferred from the Saratov region prison to the Penitentiary Colony No. 9 in the city of Tsivilsk, Chuvashia. This was reported by his wife, Sabriye, in a comment to Crimean Solidarity.

Akim Bekirov is a Crimean Tatar activist. Before his arrest, he was engaged in IT security issues, helped with transfers to pre-trial detention centers, and attended court hearings. On March 27, 2019, he was arrested in Crimea (Qırım) during a series of massive searches in the villages of Kamianka, Strohanivka, and Bile in the Simferopol district. He was sentenced to 14 years in a strict regime colony in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case. His wife and two minor children are waiting for him at large 

The Southern District Military Court confirmed that the administration of the Verkhnouralsk Prison No. 1 in Chelyabinsk region misinterpreted the sentence of Crimean Tatar Shaban Umerov, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison, Crimean Solidarity reports. 

Umerov was supposed to stay in prison for exactly one year. After that, he was to be transferred to a strict regime penal colony with milder conditions than in prison. The administration of the correctional facility argued that the political prisoner should stay in Chelyabinsk for longer than a year. The Southern District Military Court confirmed that the Crimean Tatar should spend no more than a year in prison, taking into account the fact that he had already served his sentence in the pre-trial detention center.

Shaban Umerov was detained on March 27, 2019, after massive searches in the homes of Crimean Tatars in Crimea. Along with him, law enforcement officers detained more than 20 other Crimean Tatar civil society activists.

The so-called “supreme court of the DPR” sentenced three Ukrainian prisoners of war — Bohdan Potapov, Dmytro Braiko, and Eskender Kudusov — to 28 and 29 years. This was reported by Zmina. 

Ukrainian soldiers were captured while defending Mariupol. They are accused of allegedly killing and abusing civilians.  

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced Ukrainian prisoner of war Oleksandr Harnaha to 18 years in a maximum security colony. He is accused of alleged terrorism, Zmina reports.

The Russians accuse the Ukrainian soldier of joining the Azov Brigade, a terrorist organization recognized in Russia, on his own initiative at the end of 2023. He was taken prisoner in Avdiivka in February 2024 while carrying out a combat order as part of the 3rd Assault Brigade. 

Harnaha is a 27-year-old native of Shchastia, Donetsk region. Before the full-scale invasion, he lived in Kharkiv. Before Avdiivka, he served in the 111th separate territorial defense brigade.