Almost five years after Russian ‘Cossacks’ fighting in Donbas took Ukrainian tank commander Bohdan Pantyushenko prisoner, the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ [DPR] has sentenced him to 18 years’ imprisonment

Oleksandr Timofeyev has been ‘sentenced’ by the self-proclaimed and Russian-controlled ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ [DPR] to 14 years’ imprisonment on charges as fluid as the amount of ransom demanded of his wife

Serhiy Rusinov, a young student from Luhansk, has been imprisoned for over a year in the self-proclaimed ‘Luhansk people’s republic’, with the charges against him and his ‘sentence’ probably due to his pro-Ukrainian views

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has issued a hard-hitting resolution * on Russia’s illegal occupation and militarization of Crimea, in which it clearly states that the 24 Ukrainian seamen whom Russia seized in November 2018 are prisoners of war

It is over four years since three Ukrainian military men were taken prisoner in the so-called ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ with two of the men seized during one of the battles which Russia deployed significant forces to win

It has long been assumed that a hostage release might be arranged in advance of Ukraine’s parliamentary elections as a boost to Viktor Medvedchuk, a highly controversial Ukrainian politician and friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The release is, however, frustratingly limited

A month after Russia was ordered by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea [ITLOS] to release 24 Ukrainian servicemen it is holding prisoner

Over two years ago, in June 2017, a Ukrainian writer and journalist Stanislav Aseev was abducted in Donetsk on the temporarily occupied territory. Abductors – the so-called Ministry of State Security of the DPR – denied their involvement in this case, having admitted only after a month and a half that the journalist has been imprisoned on espionage charges.

The Kirovsky District Court in Russian-occupied Crimea has sentenced Edem Kadyrov to four years’ imprisonment and a further year’s restricted liberty for allegedly belonging to the Asker (or Noman Çelebicihan) volunteer battalion

The trial of 32-year-old Kostyantin Davydenko is taking place behind closed doors before a ’judge’ who has already sentenced political prisoner Yevhen Panov to 8 years’ imprisonment despite the lack of any evidence to back extremely implausible charges

On 21 April, then President-Elect Volodymyr Zelensky called the release of all political prisoners and PoWs his priority.  He now has every opportunity to make that a reality and the relatives of the prisoners and human rights groups have given him a road map on where to begin

The de facto High Court in Russian-occupied Crimea has upheld a 10.5 year sentence against a young Crimean Tatar,  Fevzi Sahandzhy despite the latter’s allegations of torture and the lack of any criminal behaviour in the charges

Ukrainian rights activist Andrey Yarovoi (Andriy Yarovyi] has become the laureate of the 2019 Carol and Travis Jenkins Award for his outstanding contribution to reducing drug-related harm, although he is imprisoned in the so-called ’Luhansk people’s republic’ and could not receive it himself.

Oleksiy Bessarabov and Volodymyr Dudka have been sentenced by a Russian-controlled Sevastopol court to 14 years’ imprisonment on entirely fabricated ‘sabotage’ charges

At least four of the 24 Ukrainian prisoners of war whom Russia seized on 25 November 2018 have been taken to the Serbsky Institute for supposed psychiatric assessment.  All the men are likely to be subjected to what, in the given situation, amounts to punitive psychiatry

Russia had seized its first Ukrainian political prisoner even before completing its illegal annexation.   Mykola Shyptur has now been imprisoned for over five years serving a 9-year sentence on a surreal charge of attempting to murder men who were trying to abduct, and probably kill, him

In its first quarterly report since Russia’s attack on three Ukrainian naval ships near Crimea, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has clearly stated that Russia is in breach of international humanitarian law and that the 24 Ukrainians seized on 25 November 2018 are prisoners of war

Russia’s attack on Ukrainian naval vessels and seizure of 24 POWs were condemned by the international community but the sanctions thus far have been “like a pinprick to an elephant”, according to Nikolai Polozov, the coordinator of the lawyers representing the 24 Ukrainians

Maxim Sokurenko has been remanded in custody in occupied Crimea and could face a three-year prison sentence for hurling a bit of paint at a monument to the Russian soldiers without insignia who seized control of Crimea five years ago

It is indicative of the questionable nature of all such prosecutions that Russian-controlled reports of this sentence used identical video footage to that shown in reporting another alleged arrest of a ‘battalion member’ on that very same day.