Russia’s attack on Crimean Solidarity extends repression to all lawyers defending political prisoners

The list of new targets, the vast majority of whom are Crimean Tatars, is huge, and includes human rights defenders, journalists and the fathers, wives or other close family members of political prisoners

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• War crimes

Russia uses punitive psychiatry for torment without end against vulnerable Ukrainian with autism

Leonid Popov has been in Russian captivity for over three years, with the 25-year-old's special needs having proved no impediment to the Russians torturing him, then staging a grotesque 'trial' on spying charges

• War crimes • Human Rights Abuses in Russian-occupied Crimea

Armed terror, long sentences & fines under Russian occupation for up to 12-year-old pro-Ukrainian social media posts

A cartoon of Putin drinking Ukraine's blood from 2014, a call in 2022 from a Ukrainian for other Ukrainians to support their own Armed Forces, these are just two of the old posts dredged up for Russia to hunt down Ukrainian patriots

• War crimes

Cruel torment as Russia hides even the Ukrainian POWs and civilian hostages it is openly persecuting

Although those POWs, civilian hostages held incommunicado, without any status, remain most in danger, the obstacles Russia is placing against relatives and others finding out where Ukrainians are held prisoner mean that none is safe

• Human Rights Abuses in Russian-occupied Crimea

Volodymyr Ananiev turns 77 in Russian captivity in brutal reprisal for his pro-Ukrainian position and civic activism

Russia's oldest Ukrainian political prisoner is facing a massive sentence which all Russians complicit in his persecution, including the 'judge', know in advance that he cannot survive

• War crimes • Human Rights Abuses in Russian-occupied Crimea

Freedom House rates Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine as less free than the most notorious dictatorships

Freedom House rates Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory as less free even than the most notorious dictatorships

• War crimes • Human Rights Abuses in Russian-occupied Crimea

'Treason' charges against Crimean political prisoner imprisoned twice for opposing Russia’s war against Ukraine

Since Yevhen Shved has been imprisoned since June 2023, it is likely that the new charges are over social media posts or fake testimony from other prisoners

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KHPG projects

Dissident movement in Ukraine. Virtual museum

KHPG has been researching the history of the human rights movement in Ukraine for over 30 years. In particular, it has prepared about 350 biographies of the movement participants, conducted more than 200 interviews with them and published their works.

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Online Library

Online library of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group. Here you can read or download free books, articles and documents on basic and specific human rights issues

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Human Rights Abuses in Russian-occupied Crimea

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Health concerns mount for 62-year-old Larysa Haidai, held incommunicado for two years while FSB fabricated charges

Larysa Haidai is one of three women abducted by the FSB in March 2024 and held in total isolation, probably to extract ‘confessions’ and come up with charges

Unending torment as Valentyn Vyhivsky, other Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russian captivity after long sentences

Valentyn and his family have already suffered enough after 11 long years, as have others, like Hennadiy Lymeshko who was seized after serving an 8-year sentence and sentenced to two more years

At least 55 Crimeans are held incommunicado, without charges, in notorious FSB-controlled prison

64-year-old Marat Batyrov and Sakha Manhubi, a young mother with two small children, are now known to have been held at SIZO-2 for up to a year with the isolation and lack of official recognition often used by the FSB to torture out 'confessions'

Monstrous 18-year sentence against 66-year-old Ukrainian from Russian-occupied Sevastopol

Russia’s ‘treason trials’ in occupied Crimea all seem to come from the same conveyor belt, with the sentence against Oleksandr Hlukhoiedov one of three churned out on virtually identical charges

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