Exactly a year after Russia released 24 Ukrainian POWs and 11 political prisoners, three of the men freed: Oleg Sentsov; Oleksandr Kolchenko and Volodymyr Balukh – have addressed the over 100 Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainians whom Russia is showing no intention of releasing.

A large number of prominent Ukrainian Jews have voiced opposition to the current Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Complex (which they refer to as Russian) and have called for the Ukrainian concept for a memorial complex to be accepted

It is almost exactly a year since Russia finally freed Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, 24 prisoners of war and 10 other political prisoners in an exchange almost certainly aimed at getting important MH17 witness and likely suspect, Vladimir Tsemakh, out of the reach of the Dutch prosecutor

As of July 2020, Russia is holding a record number of political prisoners, with over 100 of these Ukrainian citizens, and is threatening to ‘extradite and imprison’ foreign nationals who correctly tell them that Crimea is Ukrainian.

A Russian court has sentenced 64-year-old Yuri Dmitriev to three and a half years’ imprisonment on one of four charges he was facing, acquitting him on the others

The verdict is due on 22 July in what a huge number of prominent Russians have called one of the grubbiest political trials in the country

There is bemused indignation among relatives of the Kremlin’s many Ukrainian political prisoners at police reports that two Russians working for the FSB and believed to have been planning to commit grave crimes in Ukraine have merely been deported from the country

Russia’s cynical rerun of its trial of world-renowned historian of the Soviet Terror, Yuri Dmitriev, is coming to an end with the prosecutor on 7 July demanding a 15-year sentence in a maximum security prison

Not only is a memorial complex of national and international importance in private hands, but the main financial player is a Russian oligarch seen as close to the Kremlin

With around 90 Ukrainian political prisoners illegally imprisoned in occupied Crimea and Russia, many for several years, now is surely the perfect time to show them that they are not forgotten

It is impossible to overstate the vital role that Crimean Tatars played in upholding Ukraine’s territorial integrity on 26 February 2014, and in preventing Russia from achieving a coup without the open use of soldiers

Delegates from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have cited supposedly ‘positive moves’ from Russia as their excuse for removing sanctions, an excuse dismissed by both Ukrainian and Russian human rights groups t

Failure to defend the huge number of Crimean Tatar political prisoners is tantamount to betrayal, as a major factor in Russia’s persecution has been Crimean Tatars’ unwavering identification with Ukraine, and the role many have played in highlighting rights violations

Rosfinmonitoring, a body involved in Russia’s systematic persecution of Ukrainians from occupied Crimea and Russians for their religious or political views appears to be working in cooperation with the Council of Europe http://fedsfm.ru/ )

By changing its maps, whether in Russia alone, or everywhere, in order to retain Russian business, Apple is collaborating with an aggressor state which has brought grave human rights violations and untold suffering to occupied Crimea

Oleg Sentsov drew a standing ovation from members of the European Parliament on 26 November with a speech in which he warned Europe to distrust Russian President Vladimir Putin and stressed the need to keep fighting for the release of about 100 Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners whom Russia is illegally imprisoning

200 prominent Russians have come out in defence of Russian historian of the Soviet Terror, Yuri Dmitriev, and the child whose life the FSB is destroying for the sake of a grubby and politically-motivated trial

The Memorial Human Rights Centre traditionally marks the Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression on 30 October by publishing updated lists of political prisoners (see below for our updated list)

The case of Ruslan Zeytullaev, one of the ‘oldest’ of Russia’s Ukrainian political prisoners, stands out for the relentless cynicism with which the Russian FSB obtained the huge sentence they needed for their records and, probably, bonuses or promotion

Although Oleksandr Shumkov’s four-year sentence is not as monstrously long as those imposed on many Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners,  it is certainly shocking, given that the young Ukrainian serviceman was abducted from Ukraine to face surreal charges of involvement in a legal organization in Ukraine.