torture
A typical day in a Russian prison (a diary of a civilian hostage)
Russia holds prisoners of war and civilians in an extensive network of prisons inside the country and the occupied territories of Ukraine. The conditions of detention there typically do not meet even basic human rights standards: prisoners are systematically subjected to torture, beatings, and physical violence. They are not provided with proper medical care, are […]
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 […]
Three stories about the abuse and inhumane conditions for Ukrainian women prisoners
During the war, Russian occupying forces abducted and held in prisons not only Ukrainian men but also women, regardless of age and status. Women are also subjected to torture, intimidation, and horrific conditions. They are accused of terrorism, adjusting fire, and collaborating with the Ukrainian armed forces. According to the Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily […]
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, […]
‘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
Amet Suleymanov, a Crimean Tatar and a civic journalist and streamer of the Crimean Solidarity is 38 years old. He is a defendant in the third Bakhchysarai case of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a political party banned in Russia. Under the pretext of participating in it, Russians fabricate cases against Crimean Tatars who did not accept the […]
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 […]
126 Ukrainian women are in Russian captivity, most of them civilians
As of the end of June 2023, 126 women are still in Russian captivity. This news was reported by the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories and the National Information Bureau. “According to the National Information Bureau, as of the end of June 2023, 126 women are in Russian captivity. Of these, 46 […]
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 […]
OHCHR documented widespread practices of torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian civilian detainees by Russian armed forces
Of 38 released civilians (34 men, 4 women) interviewed by OHCHR in the mentioned period, 33 individuals reported having various forms of torture or ill-treatment inflicted on them while in detention, in order to force them to confess to having cooperated with the Ukrainian armed forces, to force them to cooperate with Russian armed forces or affiliated armed groups, or simply to intimidate them
‘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.
Ukrainian Balukh felt faint in the Crimean court
However, the judge decided to continue the court hearing...
Ukraine won the first case in the European Court related to the occupation of Luhansk
Judges have unanimously recognized that Ukraine is not responsible for the consequences of losing control over the territory of the Luhansk region
Police in Donetsk region tortured two men
One of men was kept in detention for three days and the other for one day incommunicado
The Parliament limited the entry of Crimean residents into universities only of 4 regions of the mainland Ukraine
"It took 20 minutes for the deputies to postpone for at least 10 years the issue of maintaining contacts with the peninsula and the possibility of reintegration"
Колонки
A letter from unfreedom. Read a message from Bogdan Ziza, an artist and a Crimean political prisoner
I sewed up vaginal tears with veterinary needle and capron for sails: Story of gynecologist from Izyum
Which cities do the most for the integration of IDPs in Ukraine?
Ukraine: NGOs need EU help
