A long-promised exchange is about to take place on a much smaller scale than hoped for, and with none of the prisoners identified by former hostages like Stanislav Aseyev included

A raging pandemic is no obstacle for Russia’s FSB which has made new arrests in occupied Crimea with this ‘Ukrainian saboteur / spy’ storyline ominously similar to those used in previous politically-motivated prosecutions.

Ivan Yatskin, a Ukrainian from Crimea whom Russia has charged with ‘treason’, is to remain imprisoned in Moscow despite medical conditions which put him in particular danger if infected by Covid-19

Natalya Zelenina has been imprisoned in the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ [DPR] since November 2017, although her potentially life-threatening plight has only recently been made public

It is likely that Denis Kashuk agreed to plead guilty after threats that his mother and other members of the family would be arrested

The trial is shortly to begin in Russia of 61-year-old Ukrainian Oleh Prykhodko on charges almost certainly linked with his pro-Ukrainian views and unconcealed opposition to Russian occupation

Roman Onishchuk was taken prisoner by militants of the Russian proxy ‘Luhansk people’s republic’ in June 2015, and there has been virtually no information about him since

The self-proclaimed ‘Luhansk people’s republic’ has sentenced Anton Hryhorov, an employee of the Luhansk University, to 12 years for what they call ‘state treason’

72-year-old Volodymyr Morgunov is probably Russia’s oldest Ukrainian political prisoner, with his horrifically long 12-year sentence seemingly linked with his handing information to Ukraine that Russia has no good reason to keep secret

Ukrainian hostage Roman Sahaidak is in acute pain and may suffer irreparable damage to the spine after the beatings he received by militants from the self-proclaimed ‘Luhansk people’s republic’

Russia has seized another Ukrainian political prisoner in occupied Crimea, bringing to at least five the number of new hostages since the only major exchange of prisoners to date, in September 2019

Maidan activist Mykola Shyptur probably became Russia’s first Ukrainian political prisoner by mistake, although not for any good reason

The self-proclaimed ‘Luhansk people’s republic’ has seized another woman hostage and is claiming that she was ‘spying’ for Ukraine’s Security Service

Ukrainian political prisoner Hennady Lymeshko is receiving threats to his life from prison officials in Russia, and his wife reports that these are both because of Lymeshko’s Ukrainian nationality, and because he converted to Islam in 2018

The whereabouts have finally been learned of 55-year-old Volodymyr Dudka and Oleksiy Bessarabov (43) given horrifically long sentences for refusing to ‘confess’ to an implausible ‘sabotage plot’ in Russian-occupied Crimea

41-year-old Ivan Yatskin was taken prisoner by the Russian FSB in October 2019, and taken to the notorious Lefortovo Prison in Moscow

One of the many hostages held by the self-proclaimed ‘Luhansk people’s republic’ who was not freed on 29 December 2019 was 23-year-old Serhiy Rusinov

71-year-old Zinaida Maltseva spent 19 months imprisoned in the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ despite the lack of any grounds and her severe disability, which makes it impossible for her to walk without a wheelchair or crutches

Oleh Halaziuk, one of the two Ukrainian bloggers released in the prisoner exchange on 29 December 2019, has given details of his imprisonment in the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk people’s republic’

68-year-old Vitaly Atamanchuk remains imprisoned in the Russian proxy ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ almost 18 months after he, his 70-year-old wife and their son were seized by the militants