Themes by tag: russian crimes

Vladyslav and Stanislav Chuhuienko are twin brothers from Zaporizhzhia. From an early age, Stanislav dreamed of becoming a soldier, and his brother supported his decision. Together, they entered the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Army Academy in Lviv and later joined the Ukrainian Marine Corps.

The Chuhuienko brothers fought in the Donetsk sector and were in Mariupol at the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion. During one of the missions, Vladyslav sustained shrapnel wounds to his legs. He was evacuated to a hospital and later transferred to the Illich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, where the brigade command was stationed.

On April 4, 2022, Vladyslav and Stanislav were taken prisoner. At first, they were held together, but were later separated. In captivity, Vladyslav was subjected to torture, beatings, and electric shocks. He was returned to Ukraine during a prisoner exchange on August 14, 2025. While in captivity, he believed his brother had already returned home. Only after his release did he learn that Stanislav remains in russian captivity. Vladyslav now takes part in rallies supporting prisoners of war and missing persons and is waiting for the return of his closest person.

Vladyslav Chuhuienko can be contacted both online and in person in Lviv by prior arrangement.

• casualties
• military
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Lviv

Since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Franky and Сoen — two Dutch entrepreneurs — have been continuously providing humanitarian assistance across Ukraine. What began as a small initiative at the Polish border, where they distributed free French fries to refugees, has grown into a large-scale humanitarian effort spanning the country, including frontline areas.

Today, their work includes:

• distributing hundreds of thousands of hot meals;
• evacuating people and animals from frontline areas;
• delivering medical supplies, food, and humanitarian aid;
• providing financial support to vulnerable families;
• operating a shelter for internally displaced people in Dnipro (Holland House); a second Holland House is set to open in western Ukraine in the coming months, expanding support capacity for more than 100 additional people;
• organizing recovery trips for children affected by the war.

The volunteers are well known in the Netherlands not only for their work in Ukraine but also for how they communicate it. Through social media, documentaries, and national television, they bring the reality of the war directly into Dutch homes.

Franky and Сoen experienced the reality of war firsthand while dining at the Ria Pizza restaurant in Kramatorsk. On June 27, 2023, a russian missile strike hit the city center, killing 13 people and injuring 64 others, including the Dutch volunteers.

By prior arrangement, journalists can meet Franky and Сoen in Kyiv (April 15), Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and the Donbas region. Online interviews are also available.

• casualties
• food
• russian crimes
• volunteers
• Kyiv
• evacuation

Before the full-scale invasion, 29-year-old Mykola Petrovskyi lived with his father and grandmother in Kherson. Mykola is disabled — after a car accident, part of his left foot was amputated and he now wears a prosthesis.

When Kherson was occupied by russian forces, Mykola became a volunteer, helping people in the city. One day, russian security forces abducted him from his home.

In September 2023, the so-called “Supreme Court of Crimea” sentenced Mykola Petrovskyi to 16 years in a maximum-security penal colony, falsely accusing him of “espionage”.

Letters from Mykola reveal that he was tortured in captivity, beaten, denied proper medical care, which is crucial for a person with a disability, and starved. According to the Center for Civil Liberties, Mykola’s health condition has deteriorated.

Read his full story here.

Journalists can arrange interviews with Mykola’s mother (online) and with his lawyer and human rights experts in Kyiv (in person).

• casualties
• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Halyna Hlobchasta is the head of the villages of Makiivka and Hrekivka in the Luhansk region. For more than 30 years, she worked as a teacher of mathematics and physics in her hometown of Makiivka. She later became the village head.

On March 3, 2022, russian forces occupied her village. Halyna categorically refused to cooperate with the occupiers. In mid-April of the same year, russian forces abducted her. She was interrogated and brutally tortured. In her yard, the occupiers found a hiding place with Ukrainian flags and blue-and-yellow ribbons. During one of the interrogations, they brought in her husband and ordered them to say goodbye.

Eventually, the couple was released, and they decided to flee the occupation. They managed to reach the Kharkiv region, where they met Ukrainian soldiers.

Journalists can arrange to speak with Halyna Hlobchasta both online and offline in Lviv, by prior arrangement.

• casualties
• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• women
• Lviv

Skeiron has digitally documented damage to the Bernardine Monastery complex in Lviv. This was necessary to record the condition of the site immediately after the strike, as some information could have been lost during cleanup and restoration.

Skeiron was founded in Lviv in 2016 by a group of enthusiasts. Its main goal is to preserve and promote cultural heritage through digitalization. The team documents both preserved and destroyed landmarks with the aim of supporting their future restoration.

Over the years, the team has digitized and reconstructed more than 270 sites, including those destroyed during the war. Among them is a 3D reconstruction of the Mariupol Drama Theatre destroyed by Russia. The largest sites digitized include Chernivtsi University and the Odesa Opera House.

Journalists can arrange interviews with Skeiron representatives both online and offline in Lviv by prior arrangement.

• culture
• russian crimes
• Lviv

On March 30, ahead of the fourth anniversary of the liberation of Bucha from Russian occupation, commemorative events will take place in the Bucha community.

The official program includes:

– A memorial gathering and requiem service, with tribute paid to fallen defenders, including candle lighting and flower-laying at their graves;

– The unveiling of memorial plaques honoring prominent Bucha residents Zhanna and Mykhailo Kamenev;

– The “Light of Memory. Bucha Remembers” campaign, featuring the traditional lighting of candles near the Wall of Memory and the Cross of Memory.

Background: Zhanna Kameneva was a volunteer who had supported the army and orphaned children since 2014 and was shot by Russian forces in March 2022 while evacuating civilians. 

Mykhailo Kamenev (call sign “Kaktus”) was a senior soldier and machine gunner of the 93rd Brigade and the 25th Battalion “Kyivska Rus,” a veteran of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO), who was killed in October 2023 during the defense of Marinka in the Donetsk region.

Bucha, in the Kyiv region, was liberated from Russian occupation on March 31, 2022. During the fighting and occupation, hundreds of civilians were killed. Since then, the city’s name has become synonymous with war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.

• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Peaceful rallies in support of defenders of Azovstal and other Ukrainian service members still held in enemy captivity will take place in 31 cities across Ukraine.

On March 21, events will be held in Svitlovodsk, Okhtyrka, Chernihiv, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Kovel, Shpola, Volochysk, Dnipro, Pavlohrad, and Lviv.

On March 22, rallies are planned in Kyiv, Krolevets, Pivdennoukrainsk, Kremenchuk, Mykolaiv, Korop, Obukhiv, Ovruch, Korosten, Kharkiv, Dolynska, Cherkasy, Poltava, Uzhhorod, Berdychiv, Kropyvnytskyi, Rivne, Chernivtsi, Lozova, and Odesa.

The events are organized by families of prisoners of war from the Mariupol garrison. Ukrainians who have been released from captivity also often take part.

• prisoners
• russian crimes

Since the beginning of last school year, schoolchildren in the village of Bohdanivka, Kyiv oblast, have been able to study in a modular Temporary Educational Space (TES).  The space is accessible, with a generator for uninterrupted power supply, comfortable furniture, modern tablets and multimedia panels. The TES has six classrooms and now serves more than  200 schoolchildren who previously had to travel to a neighboring village.

Bohdanivka was occupied in 2022. russian soldiers set up camp in the local school and burned it down when they withdrew. They also blew up the kindergarten, where they had stored ammunition, leaving the village without any educational facilities.

By prior arrangement, journalists can cover the work of the modular temporary educational space in Bohdanivka.

Background: This project is being implemented by IREX in partnership with the SavED Charitable Foundation and the GoGlobal NGO. They work in close cooperation with local communities who have lost their educational institutions due to russian aggression.

• children
• occupation
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

On the fourth anniversary of the terrible tragedy that occurred at the Mariupol Drama Theater, journalists are invited to attend memorial events and honor the memory of the civilian and military victims.

In particular, a prayer service will be held in Kyiv on March 15. On March 16, memorial events honoring those killed at the Mariupol Drama Theater will take place in various cities across Ukraine: Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Kalush, Kamensk, Kremenchuk, Kropyvnytskyi, Poltava, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, Rivne, Ternopil, Uzhhorod, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, and Chernivtsi.

For reference: On March 16, 2022, russian occupiers dropped aerial bombs on the Mariupol Drama Theater. The word “CHILDREN,” written in large letters and clearly visible from the sky, did not stop them. Hundreds of Mariupol families were taking shelter in the theater. Hundreds of innocent people were killed that day, including children.

The russian occupation authorities restored the building, permanently destroying any possibility of conducting a fair investigation into the deaths at the Drama Theater.

• children
• dead
• russian crimes
• Dnipro
• Kyiv
• Lviv
• Odesa

Marking the 4th anniversary of the russian occupation of the village of Yahidne, the Public Interest Journalism Lab (PIJL) has produced an audio guide titled “Yahidne. A Village in Captivity.”
The presentation took place on March 3 in Yahidne itself, in the Chernihiv region, where 368 local residents became victims of russian war crimes.

It was on March 3, 2022, that russian troops herded almost all residents of the village into the basement of the local school, including dozens of elderly people, children, and infants. They were held there for nearly a month and used as a human shield, forbidden to leave the cramped space while russian soldiers set up a military headquarters inside the school building. Under these horrific conditions, ten people died in the basement.

The audio guide is a documentary tour of the site of a war crime — the school grounds and its basement.
The English-language version is narrated by American historian Timothy Snyder, while the voices of Yahidne residents in English are read by American writer and journalist Anne Applebaum, Canadian politician Khrystya Freeland, British journalist and propaganda researcher Peter Pomerantsev, American journalist Sabra Ayres, American-French writer Jonathan Littell, and American historian Marcy Shore.

The audio guide is available in Ukrainian and English on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
A QR code with the link is displayed on banners next to the school, which continues to be visited by tourists and foreign delegations.

By prior arrangement, journalists can speak with representatives of the Public Interest Journalism Lab online or in person in Kyiv.

Background: The PIJL team has a unique connection to the village community, as its journalists were among the first to visit the liberated Chernihiv region in April 2022.

Based on testimonies documented from Yahidne residents, the team produced a documentary film, which—together with a written report from the village—was published in TIME magazine in an issue dedicated to the publication’s centennial. In addition to English, the film has been translated into eight other languages: Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, and French.The story of Yahidne was also included in the reportage book “The Scariest Days of My Life”, which became a historical record of the first year of russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

• casualties
• dead
• occupation
• russian crimes
• Kyiv