torture

Torture in the occupied territories: global consequences of terror
Columns - 22 December 2023

Torture in the occupied territories: global consequences of terror

ZMINA Human Rights Center has been documenting war crimes committed by representatives of the Russian Federation since the beginning of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine. In particular, it interviews victims of arbitrary detention, torture, and ill-treatment. Unfortunately, the practice of committing these crimes remains widespread and systemic. On December 7, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy […]

Three stories of women taken by Russians as civilian hostages from Kherson
Articles - 05 November 2023

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

A typical day in a Russian prison (a diary of a civilian hostage)
Articles - 08 September 2023

A typical day in a Russian prison (a diary of a civilian hostage)

ZMINA has obtained a diary written by one of the Kremlin’s prisoners, Dmytro (name changed for security reasons), which he secretly kept throughout his imprisonment. We also spoke with Yevgen Yamkovyi and Viacheslav Zavalnyi, who learned firsthand what the modern Russian penitentiary system is like

A story of an elderly man from Balakliya on a 12-day hunger strike in Russian captivity
Articles - 18 August 2023

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
Articles - 04 August 2023

Three stories about the abuse and inhumane conditions for Ukrainian women prisoners

Read about how Russian forces detain women, the conditions in which they are held, and their treatment in Russian prisons in the stories of the director of a village club and a masseuse from Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region, and a volunteer from Mariupol, Donetsk region, shared with ZMINA by the prisoners themselves or their relatives and friends

A resident of Nova Kakhovka, abducted three times, was found in one of the Simferopol detention centers
News - 26 July 2023

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

‘Women are not beaten here in Ukraine, but our hands are free’: How Russians held women in seized TDC in Kherson
Articles - 19 July 2023

‘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
Articles - 18 July 2023

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
News - 18 July 2023

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

126 Ukrainian women are in Russian captivity, most of them civilians
News - 04 July 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

A story of a man spent two months in captivity in the Russian pre-trial detention center with other civilians and volunteers
Articles - 03 July 2023

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
Articles - 26 June 2023

A witness account of abduction and torture in Hornostaivka village, Kherson region

Read a full witness testimony of Serhii, a Kherson region resident, about his abduction and torture experience. Due to safety concerns, ZMINA changed the name of the torture survivor

Torture as a policy of suppressing Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion – Report
Articles - 23 June 2023

Torture as a policy of suppressing Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion – Report

The analytical report, prepared by ZMINA, provides a detailed account of documented policies, locations, profiles of main targets among civilians, and portraits of typical perpetrators of Russian occupying forces in Ukraine who brutally mistreated people from the Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions

Volunteer Yaroslav Zhuk stated that he was tortured in the Rostov pre-trial detention center
News - 19 June 2023

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
News - 25 October 2022

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
Articles - 10 October 2022

‘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.

Human rights defenders consider crimes committed by Crimean paramilitary formations as war crimes
News - 16 August 2017

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

Ukrainian Balukh felt faint in the Crimean court
News - 27 July 2017

Ukrainian Balukh felt faint in the Crimean court

However, the judge decided to continue the court hearing...