occupation
How should Ukraine respond to court decisions issued during the occupation?
Judges, prosecutors, and human rights activists shared their vision during the discussion “What should be the state’s approach to court decisions made during the occupation after the liberation of the territories of Ukraine?” organized by the ZMINA Human Rights Center.
Forced filming in propaganda: How Russians use civilian hostages to strengthen their power
Since the full-scale invasion, the number of civilians who have been victims of illegal detention and subsequent imprisonment by the Russians is measured in thousands. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, as of October 2023, the official register contained over 28,000 citizens missing under special circumstances. Some of these people are civilians who […]
Mariupol resident, Mariana Checheliuk’s health deteriorated significantly due to captivity
Mariana Checheliuk, a 24-year-old police officer from Mariupol, has suffered a significant deterioration in her health and immune system due to her extended stay in captivity. In August 2023, she was transferred from a prison in Taganrog to Mariupol, where she is still being held. Mariana’s mother, Natalia Checheliuk, told ZMINA about this. According to […]
A story of Oleksandr Tarapon from Crimea, illegally convicted by Russia
On October 21, 2022, the occupation court of Alushta sentenced Oleksandr Tarapon to 2.5 years in a strict regime colony. He was charged with Article 207.3 (part 1) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, namely, “public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the exercise of powers by state bodies of the Russian Federation.”
Three stories of women taken by Russians as civilian hostages from Kherson
Olha and Svitlana told ZMINA about how Russian occupying forces took prisoners, hastily prepared new cells for them, and held civilian hostages on the occupied left bank of the Kherson region
Four stories of missing persons in the occupied territories of Ukraine
For over a year and a half of full-scale Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, thousands of Ukrainians have gone missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings, in artificially flooded areas, and Russian prisons. It is still not known precisely how many people have disappeared due to the war unleashed by Russia. According to the register of […]
A story of an elderly man from Balakliya on a 12-day hunger strike in Russian captivity
Russian occupying forces took 73-year-old Viktor Illinsky from his home in Balakliya, Kharkiv region, in early August 2022. They wrapped a jacket around his head, put him in a military jeep, and drove him to the local police station. He was held with other civilian hostages, including another man in his 70s, in a cramped […]
The health of political prisoner Zevri Abseitov has significantly deteriorated
Fatma Abseitova, Zevri’s wife, visited her husband with their children in Stavropol colony No. 1 in the village of Kochubeevskoye in the Russian Federation
A resident of Nova Kakhovka, abducted three times, was found in one of the Simferopol detention centers
Leonid Kondratsky, a resident of Nova Kakhovka, Kherson region, has been held in the Simferopol Detention Center No. 2 for over a year in the temporarily occupied Crimea. Following Russia’s full-scale military invasion and occupying parts of the Kherson region of Ukraine, the man was kidnapped three times. The last time, he was never released, […]
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
Mariupol policewoman Mariana Chechelyuk’s health has deteriorated significantly over the year of captivity
The health of Mariana Chechelyuk, a 22-year-old investigator from besieged Mariupol in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, whom the Russians took prisoner during the evacuation from Azovstal, has deteriorated significantly despite the guarantees of the United Nations and the Red Cross. For a year, the occupiers transported the woman from one prison to another, subjected […]
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
How to return Ukrainian journalism to the de-occupied territories?
ZMINA collected the opinions of journalists and experts
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.
Колонки
Six most common Russian propaganda narratives used against Ukrainians
Working in the occupied territories: what international humanitarian law says about it
Teachers under occupation: who should be punished for collaboration and what are the problems in the legislation
Crimean courage: risking freedom for Ukrainian identity
