Ukrainian filmmaker and Kremlin hostage Oleg Sentsov is dangerously weak after 87 days on hunger strike. His cousin reports that the situation is "catastrophically bad" and that when Oleg speaks of the end being near, it is not release that he is referring to

Ukrainian filmmaker and Kremlin hostage Oleg Sentsov is dangerously weak after 87 days on hunger strike. His cousin reports that the situation is "catastrophically bad" and that when Oleg speaks of the end being near, it is not release that he is referring to

Those who assume that Ukrainians who remained in Donbas in 2014 supported the Russian-backed militants should consider the fate of 46-year-old Marina Chuikova who has been held prisoner in the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk people’s republic’[DPR] since March this year

If Russia was confident of its support in occupied Crimea, there really would be no need to jam Ukrainian media.  Yet four and a half years after its invasion and annexation, it is still taking extensive measures to ensure that Crimeans are cut off from Ukrainian radio and television broadcasts. 

If Russia was confident of its support in occupied Crimea, there really would be no need to jam Ukrainian media.  Yet four and a half years after its invasion and annexation, it is still taking extensive measures to ensure that Crimeans are cut off from Ukrainian radio and television broadcasts. 

The ‘trial’ has begun in Russian occupied Crimea of an academic and former naval captain whom Russia has accused, without a scrap of evidence, of planning acts of sabotage on instructions from Ukraine’s military intelligence

It is not only in occupied Crimea that Russia’s FSB uses provocateurs in politically-motivated prosecutions. Several young Russians, including two teenage girls, have been in custody since March 2018, and are facing long sentences for supposedly ‘organizing an extremist organization’ effectively created by a person working for the FSB

Oleksandr Kostenko has been released from a Russian prison after being forced to serve a legally absurd sentence to the end.  He is one of two Ukrainians, together with Andriy Kolomiyets, sentenced under Russian legislation on charges related to Euromaidan in Ukraine, over which Russia can have no jurisdiction.

Oleksandr Kostenko has been released from a Russian prison after being forced to serve a legally absurd sentence to the end.  He is one of two Ukrainians, together with Andriy Kolomiyets, sentenced under Russian legislation on charges related to Euromaidan in Ukraine, over which Russia can have no jurisdiction.

Bases are to be set up for Putin’s National Guard [Rosgvardia] in three cities in occupied Crimea. The official line is that this is needed to protect Russia’s illegal Crimea Bridge from ‘Ukrainian saboteurs’.  Many suspect, however, that the real aim is to have this army of specially trained fighters on hand to crush any protests

Russian enforcement officers came for Elina Mamedova between three and four years after she reposted some material from a pro-Ukrainian page on the VKontakte social network.  There were three reposts from 2014/2015, with no added comments, yet the young Crimean woman is now facing criminal charges of ‘inciting hatred towards Russians’

Russian enforcement officers came for Elina Mamedova between three and four years after she reposted some material from a pro-Ukrainian page on the VKontakte social network.  There were three reposts from 2014/2015, with no added comments, yet the young Crimean woman is now facing criminal charges of ‘inciting hatred towards Russians’

Despite the immediate danger to Oleg Sentsov’s life, Russia’s reaction so far to calls from all democratic countries to release him has been to lie about Sentsov’s ‘trial’, his citizenship, and to impose repressive measures against those Russians who have come out in the imprisoned filmmaker’s support

Journalist Orkhan Dzhemal was one of the few Russian citizens unafraid of exposing the truth about Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and, especially, its treatment of the Crimean Tatars. He was murdered on 30 July in the Central African Republic, together with Russian filmmaker Alexander Rastorguev and cameraman Kirill Radchenko

Civic activist Kateryna Handziuk is in hospital after being sprayed with acid on 31 July by a young man who was lying in wait for her near her home.  Doctors report that she has burns to 30% of her face, head and upper part of the body.  This is the latest of several attacks on civic activists over recent months.  In most, if not all, cases, the culprits have not been found.

Civic activist Kateryna Handziuk is in hospital after being sprayed with acid on 31 July by a young man who was lying in wait for her near her home.  Doctors report that she has burns to 30% of her face, head and upper part of the body.  This is the latest of several attacks on civic activists over recent months.  In most, if not all, cases, the culprits have not been found.

Another supposed ‘Crimean saboteur’, Hliv Shabliy,  whose ‘confession’ was widely shown on Russian television, has been declared a political prisoner bafter a trial and conviction that bore no relation to his confession

Another supposed ‘Crimean saboteur’, Hliv Shabliy,  whose ‘confession’ was widely shown on Russian television, has been declared a political prisoner bafter a trial and conviction that bore no relation to his confession

A Russian court has sentenced 21 Muslims from Ufa in Bashkortostan (Russian Federation) to terms of up to 24 years’ imprisonment on the same gravely flawed charges as those facing many Ukrainian Muslims in Russian-occupied Crimea

The implementers of Joseph Stalin’s Terror more often than not ended up arrested themselves and executed.  Times have changed in the Russian-controlled self-styled ‘Luhansk people’s republic’ [LPR], though only, it would seem, because they don’t necessarily shoot you when you change from ‘comrade’ to ‘enemy of the republic’ overnight.