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Peaceful events are planned in 22 cities across Ukraine to raise awareness of the defenders of Azovstal and other soldiers still in enemy captivity.

On January 18, rallies will be held in Ochyrka, Chernihiv, Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Zaporizhia, Bila Tserkva, Kolomyia and Pavlohrad.

On January 19, peaceful actions are scheduled in Kyiv, Pivdenoukrainsk, Krolevets, Ovruch, Korosten, Kremenchuk, Uzhhorod, Mykolaiv, Rivne, Berdychiv, Korostyshiv, Ternopil, Cherkasy and Kropyvnytskyi.

The events are organized by the families of POWs from the Mariupol garrison. The rallies are often attended by Ukrainians who have been released from captivity.

• casualties
• military
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

On January 8, the Media Initiative for Human Rights and the Association “Marine Corps Strength” will host a major press conference in Kyiv to mark 1,000 days since Ukrainian marines were taken captive. The event aims to draw attention to the conditions faced by marines in russian captivity and the urgent need for international access to detention facilities. Participants will receive the event’s location via email upon registration.  

Key topics to be addressed:

– The number of marines detained, their health, and the conditions of their captivity in russia;

– The role of mixed medical commissions, as mandated by the Geneva Convention, in assessing the status of injured and seriously ill prisoners of war;

– Diplomatic avenues to secure access to detention sites in russia, with a focus on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties;

During the press conference, families of the prisoners of war will unveil a symbolic pin to express solidarity with the marines who defended Mariupol. 

Featured speakers:

– Family representatives of the detained marines;

– Olena Belyachkova, coordinator for families of prisoners and missing persons with the Media Initiative for Human Rights;

– A representative from Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs;

– Dmytro Usov, Secretary of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. 

Registration is required to attend the event.

For reference: In April and May 2022, following the protracted defense of Mariupol, marine units and other defenders of the city were captured by russian forces. A significant number were taken prisoner on April 12, 2022, during a breakout attempt from the russian-occupied Illich plant as they sought to join forces with the Azov Regiment at Azovstal.  

Families report that many of the captured marines are in critical condition, with some suffering from advanced tuberculosis, cancer, or other severe health issues requiring specialized medical equipment. Reports also indicate that some prisoners are permanently connected to artificial lung ventilation systems. Despite their dire state, russia continues to detain these individuals without adequate medical care. 

• casualties
• military
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Dmytro Kanupier, a soldier with the 12th Brigade of the Azov Ukraine’s National Guard, faced the onset of russia’s full-blown invasion in Mariupol. In April 2022, while defending the Azovstal steel plant, Dmytro sustained two shrapnel injuries. As the situation deteriorated, he and his fellow soldiers debated their grim options, including suicide, before ultimately obeying an order to surrender in late May 2022.  

Initially detained at a colony in Olenivka, within the russian-occupied Donetsk region, Dmytro endured harrowing conditions until he was transferred to Taganrog, russia, on September 26, 2022. There, he and other prisoners were subjected to relentless beatings and torture, aimed at extracting false confessions to fabricated crimes. While held captive, Dmytro was unjustly sentenced to 29 years in a strict-regime penal colony for a war crime he did not commit.  

On October 18, 2024, Dmytro was finally released as part of a prisoner exchange and returned to Ukraine. He is now undergoing rehabilitation and working to recover from his ordeal.  

Interviews with Dmytro Kanupier, either in person or online, can be arranged through his press service with prior notice.

• casualties
• military
• prisoners
• russian crimes

To raise awareness about the defenders of Azovstal and other soldiers still held in enemy captivity, a performance entitled “Third Christmas in Captivity” will be held in Lviv, accompanied by peaceful rallies in 24 cities across Ukraine.

Scheduled events:

December 21: Peaceful rallies in Okhtyrka, Pivdennoukrainsk, Chernihiv, Irpin, Vinnytsia, Kolomyia, Zhytomyr, Obukhiv, Poltava, Pavlohrad, and Zaporizhia.

December 22: Peaceful rallies in Kyiv, Uman, Krolevets, Korosten, Ovruch, Cherkasy, Uzhhorod, Mykolaiv, Korostyshiv, Kovel, Kropyvnytskyi, Odesa, Ostroh, and Lviv.

The events are organized by the families of POWs from the Mariupol garrison. The rallies are often attended by Ukrainians who have been released from captivity.

• military
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Kyiv
• Lviv
• Odesa

At 72 years old, Tetiana Tepliuk’s resilience is nothing short of extraordinary. A soldier in the Azov Regiment, she serves alongside her son, continuing a lifelong dedication to Ukraine. russia’s war against Ukraine isn’t her first brush with conflict—Tetiana’s story began decades ago.  

In 1980, she volunteered as a nurse in Afghanistan, tending to the wounded amid the chaos of war. Years later, during Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity in 2013, Tetiana was on the frontlines again, volunteering at the medical center in Kyiv’s October Palace.  

By 2015, her path led her to Mariupol, where she joined the Azov Regiment’s medical center. She was there when russia launched its full-scale invasion. Though a civilian at the time, wearing a uniform marked her as a target. Following her commander’s orders, Tetiana and her comrades were captured.  

Tetiana spent eight months in captivity. While she was spared physical torture, she endured the harrowing sounds of Ukrainian soldiers suffering nearby. Despite these horrors, her spirit remained unbroken.  

After her release, a military medical evaluation deemed her fit for duty. In September 2023, Tetiana rejoined the army, now handling administrative tasks at the medical center. However, her resolve is unwavering—she intends to wear her uniform until Ukraine achieves victory.  

Tetiana is available for interviews, both online and in person, with arrangements coordinated through her press officer.

• military
• prisoners
• women

Andrii Leinveber has been passionate about horses since childhood, and bought his first horse at the age of 14. In 2022, he founded his own equestrian club in Melitopol, a city in southern Ukraine. The club offered riding lessons for adults and children, and Andrii also taught jigiting – the art of trick riding.

After russia’s full-scale invasion began, Andrii’s stable was in danger. russian shelling damaged one of the buildings, and Andrii and his friends had to round up frightened horses scattered throughout the city. He took five horses to his home, while the others were cared for by friends.

When Melitopol was occupied by russian troops, the horses faced a new threat: hunger. The city lacked fodder, as the occupiers forbade travel to other settlements for supplies and deliberately destroyed the hay meant for the horses. One day, Andrii himself was captured by the russians. He was held in a cell for two weeks without contact with the outside world. After his release, Andrii decided to evacuate. He managed to take three horses with him, although it took three attempts to leave – twice he was turned back at russian checkpoints.

Now, Andrii has established a new equestrian club in the Odesa oblast, where he takes care of five horses and a pony. He also invites soldiers to participate in equine therapy.

• animals
• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Odesa

Yulian Pylypei, a seasoned Ukrainian Marine, endured unimaginable hardships during his more than two years in captivity. A professional soldier since 2013, Pylypei joined the Marines in 2017, serving in Mariupol. When russia launched its full-scale invasion, he was leading a mortar battery in the 36th Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Navy.

On April 14, 2022, Pylypei and his comrades were captured while attempting to break through to Azovstal. His family learned of his capture through a text sent in russian from his phone. Over the next two years and five months, he was moved through several detention facilities, including Sartana, Olenivka, Taganrog, Novozybkov, Kursk, and Mordovia, before returning to Novozybkov. Each location brought its own trials, which Pylypei recounts in harrowing detail.

Twice accused and tried by his captors, Pylypei suffered relentless abuse. He was beaten for refusing to confess to ordering attacks on civilians, starved, and subjected to torture, including an attempt to burn off his tattoo of the Ukrainian coat of arms with a stun gun. In his prayers, Pylypei asked for the strength to remain sane amid the torment.

When he was taken from his cell with his belongings, Pylypei assumed he was being transferred to another prison. He could hardly believe it when he was informed he was part of a prisoner exchange. On September 13, 2024, after 29 months in captivity, Pylypei finally returned home to Ukraine.

Those wishing to meet or speak with Yulian Pylypei, either online or in person in Kyiv, can arrange it in advance.

• casualties
• military
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Peaceful events are planned in 24 cities across Ukraine to raise awareness of the defenders of Azovstal and other soldiers still in enemy captivity.

On December 7, rallies will be held in Okhtyrka, Pivdenoukrainsk, Pavlohrad, Chernihiv, Vinnytsia, Irpin, Dnipro, and Zaporizhia.

On December 8, peaceful actions are scheduled in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, Kropyvnytskyi, Uzhhorod, Korosten, Obukhiv, Brovary, Krolevets, Ovruch, Kryvyi Rih, Ternopil, Odesa, Ostroh and Chernivtsi.

The events are organized by the families of POWs from the Mariupol garrison. The rallies are often attended by Ukrainians who have been released from captivity.

• military
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Before joining the Azov Brigade, Svitlana Vorova worked as a senior engineer at Ukrzaliznytsia and raised three children. One of her sons, Oleksandr Kutuzakii, was in the Azov Brigade from the very beginning. On 15 February 2015, the vehicle carrying Svitlana’s son was ambushed by enemy forces. His body was taken by kadyrov’s troops and returned mutilated, but Svitlana chose to bury him in an open coffin to expose the brutality of the enemy.

The loss of Oleksandr was devastating for Svitlana, especially after the deaths of her father and father-in-law and a divorce. Her two younger children helped her to cope with the loss and find the strength to move on.

In 2020, she decided to honour the legacy of her fallen son by joining the Azov Brigade herself.

When the full-scale invasion began, Svitlana was in Mariupol with her comrades and soon found herself in Azovstal. Although her commander offered women the chance to leave through a green corridor, Svitlana stayed. She spent 86 days in the steelworks, was taken prisoner with her comrades and spent 11 months in a russian prison camp. According to Svitlana, the women were not physically tortured, but they were subjected to constant psychological abuse. On her return, Svitlana spent eight months in rehabilitation centres, hospitals and sanatoriums. She then re-joined the army.

Svitlana Vorova is currently serving in the East. Interviews with her can be arranged online or in person by prior arrangement with the Azov Brigade press service.

• casualties
• dead
• military
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• women

Ilias Sheikhisliamov, a Crimean Tatar and volunteer from the Odesa oblast, was born and raised in Crimea. After the russian occupation of the peninsula in 2014, he stayed there for another four years. Since 2019, he only visited Crimea in the summer to see his family.  Ilias met the beginning of the full-scale invasion abroad: he was studying at a university in Turkey. However, he soon decided to return to Ukraine to volunteer and support the Ukrainian army.

His professors discouraged him from returning, but he insisted and later came to Odesa. He immediately started working there and joined the NGO “Crimean Tatars of Odesa Oblast”. On March 5, 2024, Ilias learned that his father, Ali Mamutov, who was living with his family in occupied Crimea, had been arrested by the russian authorities. He learned the news from his younger brother. The occupiers falsely accused Ali Mamutov of participating in or creating a terrorist organization.

While his father was being held in a detention center in Simferopol, Ilias managed to communicate with him through the russian app Zonatelecom. However, Ali Mamutov was transferred to the russian city of Rostov, and communication with him was cut off. After his father’s arrest, Ilias decided to pursue his teenage dream of becoming a lawyer. He enrolled at the Tavrida National University, which had relocated to Kyiv after Crimea’s occupation. Ilias sees this as one of the ways to keep in touch with Crimea.

Ilias Sheikhisliamov is available for interviews, both online and offline, by prior arrangement.

Background: As of May this year, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center recorded 331 cases of political imprisonment and criminal persecution since the annexation of Crimea. Of these, 217 were against members of the Crimean Tatar community.

• casualties
• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• volunteers
• Kyiv
• Odesa