occupation
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, […]
A witness account of abduction and torture in Hornostaivka village, Kherson region
Serhii, a resident of the Kherson region, was kidnapped from his home on August 3, 2022. At that time, the Southern part of Ukraine, located on both banks of the Dnipro River, had been under the control of the Russian occupying forces for almost five months. At first, the man was kept at the commandant’s […]
Torture as a policy of suppressing Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion – Report
ZMINA Human Rights Center collected evidence of how Ukrainians were kidnapped, interrogated, and tortured en masse by Russian occupying forces during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to human rights defenders, the Russian military treats the entire population of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine as a threat. Torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading […]
Volunteer Yaroslav Zhuk stated that he was tortured in the Rostov pre-trial detention center
Yaroslav Zhuk made a statement about torture with a shocker and brutal beating by officials of the Rostov-on-Don pre-trial detention center as soon as the court hearing in his case based on trumped-up charges began in early June of this year. Zhuk is a car mechanic and a resident of Melitopol, a city in the […]
Dmytro and Olena from Kupyansk imprisoned for sending SBU pictures of Russian equipment: Couple tells how they waited for town liberation in captivity
During the occupation of Kupyansk, 30-year-old local resident Dmytro Hrechanyi was taking photos and recording videos of the movement of Russian military equipment and sending them along with geolocation marks to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). In early August, Dmytro and his girlfriend Olena [name is changed] were summoned to the police station for questioning: they were asked whether they cooperated with the Ukrainian special services. During the interrogation, the occupiers made a backup copy of the man's phone and found previously deleted pictures of military equipment. Both of them were imprisoned and held separately.
‘Do you need a corpse?’: reportage from Izyum hospital where hundreds of civilians, including those tortured almost to death by Russians, were saved during occupation
From the beginning of the full-scale invasion and until the liberation of Izyum from the Russian occupiers, the Izyum Central Hospital did not stop working even for a day. During the month of the heaviest shelling and bombing, seven people, including a plumber, an electrician, nurses, a traumatologist and a surgeon, provided care to hundreds of injured and sick. ZMINA tells how surgeries were performed and babies were born in the basement of the dilapidated hospital, as well as how two civilians tortured almost to death by the Russians were saved here.
Road for survival. How Ukrainians from occupied South cross Vasylivka to break free
ZMINA talked to people, volunteers, and drivers who crossed the checkpoints in Vasylivka. In a few months, they turned into a separate world, subject to the changing mood of the occupiers – lawlessness reigns here, people have to spend nights by the road in tents and cars or neighboring villages, undergo humiliating inspections, and do not have access to healthcare. The physically and psychologically exhausting wait for departure has already claimed the lives of more than ten people.
‘I came for a cross to put on grave of murdered girl and was hit in teeth with buttstock’: reportage on Russian war crimes in Chernihiv region’s village
At the end of June, a ZMINA journalist visited Shestovytsia together with the Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv experts who document the Russian war crimes of the Russians within Ukraine 5 AM Coalition. The article tells about life in the village during the occupation.
At least six thousand people remain in “internats” on the occupied territories
Human rights defenders call upon Ministries and other responsible bodies to assess the situation with internats in the war-affected areas and organize the evacuation of those that can be evacuated as soon as possible.
For the second time in two weeks an activist was attacked in Ivano-Frankivsk
The attacker threatened to kill the victim and other activists who were walking alongside him
Human rights defenders consider crimes committed by Crimean paramilitary formations as war crimes
They published an analytical report after analyzing the impact of Russian militarization on the situation with human rights in Crimea
Near Simferopol Crimean Tatar Izetov was taken to interrogation after his house was searched
This is the fourth “meeting” of law enforcers with Izetov
FSB has beaten and kidnapped the son of the Head of the Sudak Mejlis
The reason for the search was an anonymous letter on the illegal circulation of arms and drugs and alleged involvement of Ametov
Amnesty International recognized historian Kozlovskyy as a prisoner of conscience
Amnesty International calls the case on charges of weapons possession fabricated and the proceedings as absurd
In Zhytomyr region homophobe attacked a beloved of the freelance employee of the Ministry of Social Policy
Police opened the case under Article 125 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Intended minor bodily injury) and not under the article on a hate crime
Once again witnesses in the case of Mykola Semena did not appear in the “court”
For the third time witnesses Maria Kostiuk and Serhiy Meshkovyi failed to appear at a court hearing
Russia creates the illusion of development of the Crimean Tatar media in occupied Crimea
Experts voiced recommendations that could improve the situation with freedom of speech on the peninsula
In Donbass militants are holding 121 Ukrainians in captivity
Also, according to the update information of the SBU, currently 418 people are on the list of missing persons
Колонки
What triggers world wars?
Forced filming in propaganda: How Russians use civilian hostages to strengthen their power
Torture in the occupied territories: global consequences of terror
Life without basics: Struggle of Zakhar’s Family in war-torn Mariupol
