~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 67 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 218 illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens, 132 of whom are Qırımtatarlar.

During the full-scale war, 3,981 Ukrainian citizens, including 171 civilians, were returned to Ukraine.

On October 29, 2021, the Southern District Military Court of Rostov-on-Don sentenced civilian journalist Amet Suleimanov to 12 years in prison on charges of participation in the political party Hizb ut-Tahrir. For the first time in a year and a half of his detention in the Vladimir Central Detention Center, Amet was able to call his family, namely his wife Liliia Liumanova, as informed by the Zmina Human Rights Center. 

The call lasted for about 12 minutes. During the conversation, the political prisoner talked about his health: he suffers from high blood pressure, and waiting for an operation in such conditions is a very long process.

In March 2024, the Frunze District Court of Vladimir refused to release Suleimanov from prison, although his medical records contain information about illnesses that prevent him from being imprisoned. The political prisoner and his lawyers appealed the court's decision.

Appaz Kurtamet, who is being held in a colony in the village of Sosnovy Bor in the Pskov region of the Russian Federation, has been granted the right to 15 minutes of telephone and video calls per day. The man then contacted his family and reported on the conditions of his detention, as reported by the Zmina Human Rights Center. 

According to his mother, Appaz was not allowed to study programming because of the Russian court's verdict on a political article, but he was allowed to work.

"Appaz immediately got a job, he is paid 1 thousand rubles a month, in fact, it is almost the same as working for free. Therefore, now he has less time for self-development - reading books, learning English is possible only on weekends, at the end of the week," said the prisoner's mother.

Nevertheless, Appaz said that conditions in the colony were better than in the places of detention where he was illegally held for two and a half years. For example, he has the opportunity to spend time outdoors, which was not the case in the Crimean prisons and the Vladimir Central Prison.

Appaz Kurtametov worked for an IT company and taught the Crimean Tatar language at the Crimean Tatar Cultural Center in Odesa. In July 2022, he was illegally detained by Russians in the village of Novooleksiyivka, Kherson Region, and in April 2023, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for allegedly financing terrorism.

The Military Court of Appeal of the city of Vlasikha, Moscow region, remanded in custody the participants in the case of the "Third Dzhankoy Group" of Hizb ut-Tahrir, without changing the decision of the court of first instance, as reported by Crimean Solidarity.

During the court hearing Ali Mamutov, Enver Khalilaiev, Nariman Ametov and Vokhid Mustafaiev denied their participation in terrorist activities and attempts against the constitutional order of the Russian Federation. They also stated that they were suffering from chronic illnesses.

For example, Enver Khalilaiev said that he was hard of hearing and that his health was deteriorating due to his stay in pre-trial detention. Despite this, the court refused to change the level of detention for all the participants in the case.

Remzi Kurtnezirov, a former imam of a mosque in the village of Lobanovo, a political prisoner and a group 2 disabled person who is under house arrest, was unable to attend the trial due to his poor health. According to his relatives, after the last session, the former Imam could not walk well and was in severe pain. He now receives regular injections.

Citizen journalist Remzi Bekirov has been sentenced to five days in the punishment cell of Khakassia's Correctional Colony No. 33, as reported by Crimean Solidarity.

During his six months at Correctional Colony No. 33, Bekirov has already been placed in the punishment cell seven times. Among the reasons cited were: reading namaz before bed or on a towel, failing to greet an employee, and not wearing a hat. Additionally, Bekirov was held under strict detention conditions for two months and has been denied phone calls with his family.

During a visit in December 2024, he revealed that he had lost 15 kilograms because he refused to eat pork. He also mentioned that there is a ban on approaching the bed during the day and that the guards "try to morally oppress him."

Remzi Bekirov is a citizen journalist who has documented searches and trials in politically motivated cases against Crimean residents. On March 10, 2022, the Southern District Military Court of Rostov-on-Don sentenced the human rights activist to 19 years in prison, accusing him of involvement in the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Seiran Khairedinov, sentenced to 12 years in prison, was transferred to Vladimir Prison No. 2 two months after the start of the convoy, as reported by Crimean Solidarity.

Khairedinov arrived at the prison on January 9. According to his family, he is currently in quarantine. The day before, Zarema Khairedinova, his wife, repeatedly called the prison's reception desk to inquire about her husband's whereabouts but was denied any information. The transfer has led to an "aggravation of nervous allergies" for Seiran.

Seiran Khairedinov was arrested on July 7, 2020, during the mass searches in Crimea (Qırım). 

On May 17, 2023, the Southern District Military Court sentenced Khairedinov to 12 years in a maximum-security colony under charges of participation in Hizb ut-Tahrir organization. The first four years of his sentence are to be served in prison.

Crimean Tatar activist and journalist Seiran Saliiev, sentenced to 16 years in prison, has been in the punishment cell of Correctional Colony No. 4 in the Tula region since November 20, 2024, according to Crimean Solidarity.

In response to an appeal from Mumine Saliieva, the wife of the political prisoner, representatives of the Federal Penitentiary Service stated that, by decision of the colony's disciplinary commission, Seiran Saliiev was recognized as a "malicious violator of the established order." The political prisoner's wife was never informed about the violations in question.

"At first, he was given 15 days. When that time was up and the day of his release came, he was sentenced to another 10 days... [After that], he was supposed to return to the harsh conditions of detention, but again he was sentenced to 15 more days. When those 15 days were over, he received another 15-day sentence," Mumine Saliieva said.

In July 2024, the political prisoner was sent to a harsh detention facility, where he remained for at least four months.

Seiran Saliiev is a philologist of Turkish and Crimean Tatar languages. Before his arrest in 2017, he worked as a tour guide and was a citizen journalist for Crimean Solidarity. He was reportedly sentenced for his alleged involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir party.