With President Donald Trump set to initiate some form of peace negotiations on Ukraine this year, the coalition of human rights organisations, led by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, Centre For Civil Liberties (Ukraine) and Memorial (Russia) are launching the PEOPLE FIRST! campaign.

At least fifty hostages seized long before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine remain imprisoned in occupied Donbas, with the fate of many others unknown

The updated strategy not only treats any opposition to Russian occupation as ‘extremist’, but also makes it clear that Russia is waging its war against Ukrainian history, culture and identity

In dismissing the prosecutor’s claims, Mykola Oliynyk spoke of his abhorrence of war, of his not wanting his children and grandchildren to mourn him, or of having to mourn them

While Russia began its systematic attack on independent religious communities in Crimea in 2014, all of the same methods of repression and terror have now been extended to all parts of Ukraine under occupation

We know from released POWs what kind of horrific torture Ruslan Minahurov endured to extract his supposed ‘confession’ to precisely those war crimes which Russia committed against the civilian population in Mariupol

Neither support for the legal blockade of illegally occupied Crimea, nor the Noman Çelebicihan Battalion’s ultimate objective, namely the end to Russian occupation, made its activities illegal, unlike those of the aggressor state in staging such ‘trials’

Russia first claimed that Ukrainians defending their country were ‘terrorists’ trying to ‘violently seize power’, and is now bringing ‘terrorism’ charges against Sergei Davidis for rightly calling the POWs political prisoners

The three civilians abducted in 2022 were killed in Russian captivity, as were Yevhen Matvieiev, Mayor of Dniprorudne, 27-year-old journalist Victoria Roshchyna, and, almost certainly, others

Yury Armash may well have saved the lives of many Ukrainian POWs and civilian hostages, and his treatment since he was freed seems particularly shocking. So too are the obstacles former civilian hostages encounter in proving they were held by the Russians

The 'trial' of Nona Halka, who also has two underage children, and her nephew Victor Meshniakov, was held behind closed doors, with it quite likely that Nonna was seized purely because her son is defending Ukraine

As well as trying to indoctrinate children and block their access to Ukrainian sites, the invaders are using them to try to hunt down relatives or neighbours opposing Russian occupation

Russia’s reprisals against POWs from the 36th Marine Brigade have probably been especially savage because this courageous brigade refused to betray their oath in 2014 and defended Mariupol in 2022

Instead of receiving proper medical treatment and spending time with his children and grandchildren, Mykola Oliynyk is held in a Tagenrog prison notorious for its horrific conditions and torture of Ukrainian prisoners

While making it easier to deport those whom the occupying state calls ‘foreigners’ for refusing Russian citizenship, Russia is also threatening those with a Russian passport with deportation if they didn’t swear allegiance

The Russian-controlled militants who savagely tortured and gang raped Natalia Vlasova, and threatened to send a bomb to kill her small daughter, were not content until she screamed ‘loud enough’

The real figure could be much higher as the relatives of people abducted are often on occupied territory themselves and cannot safely report the abduction

Even in Mariupol where Moscow waged a major propaganda drive about its supposed 'reconstruction', the latter has primarily been for Russians who 'buy' up properties on land which held the homes Russia destroyed or on expropriated land

Had the invader's 'referendum' at gunpoint really produced overwhelming support for 'joining Russia', the latter would hardly need the aggressively coercive measures being taken to force Ukrainians to accept the occupiers' citizenhip

At least thirteen civilians were shot and killed in the three days after Artem Tireiev ordered his men to open fire at anybody passing by. The victims included Iryna Filkyna who was recognized because of her red fingernails