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Enforced disappearances

For the First Time to Life Imprisonment: How a Russian Court Sentenced a Family from Melitopol
For the First Time to Life Imprisonment: How a Russian Court Sentenced a Family from Melitopol

The Southern District Military Court in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don sentenced three civilians from Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia Region in a case involving explosions in the city. 31-year-old Artem Murdid was sentenced to life imprisonment; his common-law wife, 28-year-old Hanna Voshkoder, was handed down a sentence of 20 years in a general regime colony. Artem’s 50-year-old mother, Hanna Murdid, received 22 years.

4 June 2025

The body of a man with a gunshot wound to the head, who went missing in 2022, was found in a field in the Kherson region. His friend is still missing
The body of a man with a gunshot wound to the head, who went missing in 2022, was found in a field in the Kherson region. His friend is still missing

Both men were from the Kherson region. On 26 March 2022, they set out together from Kyiv to return home. Ruslan headed for the Bilozerka district, and Khidir headed for the Chaplynka district. Kherson region was already under occupation at that time, but civilians could still move in and out.

28 May 2025

Russia is Blocking the Return of Civilians Abducted from Kyiv Region: Captives Held Without Contact and Trial
Russia is Blocking the Return of Civilians Abducted from Kyiv Region: Captives Held Without Contact and Trial

Hundreds of Ukrainian civilians taken from areas briefly occupied by Russian forces in 2022 remain imprisoned without trial. Not a single one of them has been brought before a court. The charges against them are not even stipulated in the Russian criminal code. They receive no letters or care packages, and they have no access to legal representation. Their families often learn of their whereabouts only from prisoners of war released during exchanges.

4 April 2025

The FSB Behind the Traitors: How the Russians Occupied Hola Prystan
The FSB Behind the Traitors: How the Russians Occupied Hola Prystan

Throughout 2022, Russian forces sought to establish their own governing structures in the occupied areas of the Kherson region. Central to this effort was the creation of a repressive apparatus staffed by local collaborators. They were supposed to operate under the supervision of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which reinforced its presence with traitors including former Ukrainian officials from Crimea, the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk, and “Berkut” riot police officers who fled Ukraine after the Maidan protests.

31 March 2025

Russians Are Torturing the “Kherson Nine” to Refuse Lawyers
Russians Are Torturing the “Kherson Nine” to Refuse Lawyers

In the summer of 2022, while Kherson was still under occupation, Russians abducted nine civilians—Serhii Ofitserov, Oleh Bohdanov, Yurii Tavozhnianskyi, Serhii Kabakov, Serhii Kovalskyi, Kostiantyn Reznik, Serhii Heidt, Yurii Kaiov, and Denys Lialka. They were accused of “preparing and committing an act of international terrorism.” Initially, the occupiers transferred the men to Simferopol, then to the Lefortovo detention center in Moscow. They are currently being held in Rostov.

18 March 2025

Russians Have Been Concealing the Whereabouts of Kherson Military Pensioner Roman Ishchenko for Three Years
Russians Have Been Concealing the Whereabouts of Kherson Military Pensioner Roman Ishchenko for Three Years

Roman Ishchenko was abducted from his own home on April 19, 2022. For three years, he has remained incommunicado. The Russians have not filed any charges against him and refuse to disclose where he is being held.

12 March 2025

A Ukrainian patriot, imprisoned at 17, has spent half his life in a penal colony in occupied Donetsk
A Ukrainian patriot, imprisoned at 17, has spent half his life in a penal colony in occupied Donetsk

The case of Bohdan Kovalchuk stands apart from the stories of other Ukrainians imprisoned by Russia in […]

4 March 2025

Transfer to prison instead of prisoner exchange: civilian captives from occupied Luhansk are being taken to Russia
Transfer to prison instead of prisoner exchange: civilian captives from occupied Luhansk are being taken to Russia

"Everything is very difficult, but I’m holding on and keeping my chin up. Hugs to all of you. I believe that we will see each other again. As Schopenhauer said 300 years ago, everything will happen one way or another", wrote Oleksandr Borysov, a resident of Luhansk, in his first letter to his family after being conveyed to prison. December 24, 2024. Yakutsk, Russia. Borysov is one of several dozen civilians who were seized in the occupied part of Luhansk region before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and have remained imprisoned ever since. At the end of 2024, Russian authorities began transferring them to Russia. Oleksandr was among the first to be transferred.

20 February 2025

Eight Years in Captivity: Prisoners of the “Donetsk Republic” Are No Longer Being Returned to Ukraine
Eight Years in Captivity: Prisoners of the “Donetsk Republic” Are No Longer Being Returned to Ukraine

In mid-2017, a wave of arrests of “Ukrainian spies” and “terrorists” began in the occupied part of the Donetsk region—allegedly due to a leak of information about them by an SSU officer who sided with Russia. Numerous arrests followed throughout the rest of 2017 and all of 2018, with some additional detentions taking place in 2019.

21 January 2025

The Bodies of Three More Ukrainians Killed in Russia Have Been Identified in Ukraine Thanks to DNA
The Bodies of Three More Ukrainians Killed in Russia Have Been Identified in Ukraine Thanks to DNA

Serhii Diedovskyi from the Chernihiv region, Andrii Pashchenko, and Serhii Shevtsov from the Kyiv region were civilians abducted and taken to Russia in 2022. They did not return alive. Their identities were confirmed through DNA testing.

7 January 2025

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