~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.

A court in Russia has illegally 'sentenced' ten servicemen of the 12th Azov Brigade of Operational Assignment.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reports. 

They are Leonid Hlushchenko, Oleh Ponomarenko, Yevhen Horiainov, Kostiantyn Oliinyk, Vadym Tsolan, Serhii Shchepkiv, Mykola Shcherbatov, Yan Serhiienko, Illia Voronovych and Artem Filin.

The Russians accuse the Ukrainian military of abusing civilians. 

The Russians do not disclose how many years of 'imprisonment' the Ukrainians have been sentenced to but claim that they are 'long sentences'.

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, most of the service members disappeared in the temporarily occupied Mariupol between May 15-23, 2022. 

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

Crimean Tatar Eskender Abdulhaniiev, sentenced to 12 years in prison, arrived at penal colony No. 41 in the Kemerovo region and was immediately placed in a disciplinary isolation cell. 

Crimean Solidarity reports this based on a letter Eskender sent to his mother.

The political prisoner sent the letter on March 6 but arrived in the colony a month ago — on February 14. He was placed in a disciplinary cell on the day of his arrival.

On November 3, 2020, the Southern District Military Court sentenced the defendants in the case of the Red Guard group Hizb ut-Tahrir, Rustem Emiruseiinov, to 17 years, Eskender Abdulhaniiev to 12 years and Arsen Abkhaiirov to 13 years. The decision was made by a panel of judges consisting of Igor Kostin and Yevgeny Zvyagin.

All the prisoners were accused of involvement in the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is recognised as a terrorist organisation in Russia but operates freely under the national laws of many countries.

Last November, Abdulhaniiev was refused a transfer from Vladimir prison to a penal colony. The so-called Red Guard District Court in the temporarily occupied Crimea declined to credit the Crimean Tatar for his time in prison and immediately transferred him to the colony. In total, the political prisoner spent more than three years in jail.

The so-called Supreme Court of the 'Donetsk People's Republic' has sentenced a serviceman of the 36th Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to 20 years in prison. 

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reports.

The Russians claim that Vasyl Shevchuk, as a tank platoon commander, allegedly abused civilians in the temporarily occupied city of Mariupol. 

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Vasyl Shevchuk went missing in Mariupol on April 10, 2022. 

Under the Geneva Conventions, 'trials' of prisoners of war are considered a crime.

The political prisoner Server Zekiriaiev, who has been sentenced to 13 years in prison, has spoken about torture in the penal colony No. 1 in the Tula region. After being transferred from the Novocherkassk pre-trial detention centre in September 2022, he was permanently held in a punishment cell, a high-security cell and a cell-type facility, where he is still held today.

Crimean Solidarity writes, quoting the Crimean Tatar's wife.

His cell is regularly searched to the tune of the 'Dog Waltz', and letters to his family are not handed over to his lawyer. 

According to Server, he has never been officially informed of the reason for his placement in the punishment cell, nor the reasons for his transfer to a strict detention cell or a cell-like facility. 

He is still in a cell-type room that smells of ammonia and carbon dioxide from the sewerage system. This has exacerbated Zekiriaiev's respiratory problems and chronic cardiovascular failure.

For about eight months, the Crimean Tatar was held in a cell with a bathroom hood over the door. Prisoners are taken there twice a week to wash. As a result, from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. twice a week, there was a damp cloud of fumes and a lingering smell of sanitary products. Zekiriaiev complained about all this in person to the inspectors under a video recorder, but none of the complaints were recorded in the register of statements.

As a result, his health deteriorated. He complained of vomiting foam after eating and training, a bitter taste in his throat and constant dizziness. The colony administration did not react to this.

The Crimean Tatar was also refused a transfer from the cell-like premises. The colony staff explained that they had sent the political prisoner there "because of his lifestyle" and regularly called him a terrorist.

It will be recalled that on October 11, 2017, FSS officers detained six Crimean Tatars in Bağçasaray — Tymur Ibrahimov, Marlen (Suleiman) Asanov, Memet Belialov, Seiran Saliiev, Server Zekiriaiev and Ernes Ametov. They were suspected of involvement in the activities of the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir in Crimea.

On September 16, 2020, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don announced the verdict in the case of the second group of Hizb ut-Tahrir's Bakhchysarai (Bağçasaray.) The Crimean Muslims were each sentenced to 13 and 19 years respectively.

The so-called Supreme Court of the Republic of Crimea has sentenced a resident of the peninsula in absentia for serving in the Ukrainian armed forces.

The ZMINA Human Rights Centre reports.

The man left Crimea temporarily in 2015. He moved to the Ukrainian mainland, where he joined one of the air defence brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and took part in hostilities against Russian troops. He is known to have received a decoration from the President of Ukraine.

The occupation authorities are charging the Ukrainian citizen with 'high treason' under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code.

The so-called Kyiv District Court in temporarily occupied Simferopol (Aqmescit) fined human rights activist and journalist Lutfiie Zudiieva without her participation in the trial. 

Crimean Solidarity reports. 

The Russians accused Lutfiie Zudiieva of allegedly abusing the freedom of the media and fined her 500 rubles, which is equivalent to 1,059 hryvnias.

Earlier, the so-called Centre for Countering Extremism had issued a report against her for "disseminating information about foreign agents or materials produced by them in the media without indicating the status of a foreign agent".

According to Zudiieva, the so-called court made the decision without her participation and did not consider her written objections in the administrative case. She believes that she is not the subject of the offence and as an individual was not obliged to comply with these requirements, while the "head of the department" of the so-called Centre for Countering Extremism in Crimea (Qırım), Ruslan Shambazov, actually equated her personal Facebook page with a registered media outlet.