30 June 2023
Articles
‘Women are not beaten here in Ukraine, but our hands are free’: How Russians held women in seized TDC in Kherson
At different times, at least 30 local women were held at a temporary detention center (TDC) in Kherson, including a policewoman, a housewife, a cadet of a military educational institution, and a head teacher of a gymnasium. This is described in the analytical report "‘Women's cells’ of Kherson torture chamber" which was prepared by Human Rights Centre ZMINA specialists based on testimonies of victims.
Gafarov-Shyring list: how Russia is killing political prisoners in Crimea
Tetyana Pechonchyk emphasized the importance of publicizing information about political prisoners. In her opinion, it is essential to tell the stories of illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens, spread them on social media and abroad, put pressure on Russia, initiate new resolutions of the European Parliament, and raise issues at the level of the OSCE and UN bodies so that Ukrainian citizens, political prisoners at risk with complex diseases, are released first and unconditionally
How to return Ukrainian journalism to the de-occupied territories?
ZMINA collected the opinions of journalists and experts
Lithuanian human rights advocate and documentarian Gediminas Andriukaitis: “Ukraine must be in NATO”
In the interview with ZMINA Andriukaitis shared his impressions of documentaries during Docudays UA Festival and told how Lithuania perceives Russia's war against Ukraine, and explained why Vladimir Putin tried to persuade European political elites for a long time that there is what he defines as a ‘special democracy’ in the Russian Federation
A story of a man spent two months in captivity in the Russian pre-trial detention center with other civilians and volunteers
Yevhen Yamkovyi, a resident of Kahovka, a city in the Kherson region on the left bank of the Dnipro river occupied by Russian forces, was detained at the checkpoint “Armyansk” in the northern part of the Crimean peninsula on January 6, 2023. Then, he was transferred to the pre-trial detention center No. 2 in Simferopol, where he met Oleksandr Babych, a mayor of the city Hola Prystan’, Yevhen Melnychuk, a Crimean resident, and Mariano Calatayud, a volunteer from Spain. In prison, he discovered that the Spaniard was tortured with an electric current, and the official was threatened with shooting. On March 7, 2023, Yevgen was released and left the occupied Crimea for Poland.
News
Russian occupying forces in Crimea detained 66 Crimean Tatars since January 2023
Crimean human rights activists recorded 140 cases of arrests on the peninsula, 93 of which were against members of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. There were also 37 searches, 29 of them in the homes of Crimean Tatars
A resident of Nova Kakhovka, abducted three times, was found in one of the Simferopol detention centers
Russian occupying forces tortured the man and tried to find out whether Leonid Adolfovych Kondratsky was the great-grandson of Adolf Hitler
Mariupol policewoman Mariana Chechelyuk’s health has deteriorated significantly over the year of captivity
For a year, the occupiers transported the woman from one prison to another, subjected her to physical and psychological pressure, and created unbearable detention conditions. Currently, Mariana Chechelyuk needs medical care, which is not provided to her in the Taganrog detention center
Political prisoner Server Mustafayev shares about poor conditions in Russian prison and lack of medical aid
Maye Mustafayeva and her and Server’s children, eight-year-old Yusuf and five-year-old Naji visited the political prisoner in Tambov prison. The family was allowed to come for an extended three-day visit from July 3 to 6
Health condition of a Crimean political prisoner Volodymyr Dudka deteriorates
Volodymyr Dudka is 58 years old, seven of which he spent in pre-trial detention centers and colonies in the Russian Federation. The man suffers from stomach ulcers, hypertension, skin rash, prostate adenoma, and urolithiasis
Almost 80% of Ukrainians have relatives or friends wounded or killed due to Russia’s war
The vast majority of Ukrainians – 78% – have close relatives or friends who have been injured or killed by the Russian invasion, according to the results of a sociological survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on May 26-June 5, 2023.
126 Ukrainian women are in Russian captivity, most of them civilians
Twenty-three women in captivity have children: 14 military women have 23 children, and nine civilians have 15
Russians handed under “preliminary custody” over a thousand children deported from Ukraine
According to the data collected by Vazhnye Istorii, at least three times more children may be transferred to Russian families than the official claims
