Themes by tag: russian crimes

Former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolaienko joined Ukraine’s territorial defense forces on the first day of russia’s full-scale invasion. When russian troops occupied the southern city in early March 2022, the 62-year-old former official went underground. He also took part in public rallies against the occupation, joining thousands of Kherson residents who defied russian forces. The largest demonstration, on March 13, 2022, drew more than 10,000 people into the streets.

In April that year, russian forces abducted Mykolaienko. He was held for more than two weeks at a police station in Kherson that the russian military had converted into a makeshift detention and torture site. According to accounts of his captivity, he was subjected to repeated beatings, interrogations, and abuse.

From Kherson, Mykolaienko was transferred to occupied Sevastopol and later moved twice more between detention facilities. He returned home on Aug. 24, 2025, as part of another prisoner exchange. Before that, he had twice refused to be included in swaps, opting instead to give his place to another captive who was gravely ill.

Mykolaienko is still recovering from the physical and psychological toll of his imprisonment. Even so, he has already resumed efforts to help secure the release of other Ukrainians held in russian captivity.

He can be reached for online or in-person meetings in Kherson by prior arrangement.

• casualties
• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Kherson

Volodymyr Sorochan is originally from Kherson. In 2014, he joined the Ukrainian military and served in Crimea. After russia annexed the peninsula, he remained loyal to his oath and relocated to mainland Ukraine with his comrades. He later continued his service under contract with the 36th Brigade.

Volodymyr encountered the start of the full-scale invasion while on duty near Mariupol. He was captured in April 2022 after attempting to escape the Azovmash plant in Mariupol. He spent nearly three years in russian captivity. There, he endured daily beatings and constant hunger. The former prisoner recalls receiving meager portions of slop instead of proper food.

On October 18, 2024, Volodymyr was returned to Ukraine. After receiving treatment and undergoing rehabilitation, he returned to civilian life. He now maintains a blog where he shares his experiences. He has also finished writing a book in which he recounts his story.

Journalists can speak with Volodymyr Sorochan online or in person in Lviv by prior arrangement.

• casualties
• military
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Lviv

The Center for Civil Liberties will host a professional discussion on the challenges and imperatives of identifying, locating, and prosecuting human rights abusers and war criminals. Human rights defenders, investigative journalists, government officials, international partners, and researchers are invited to explore the question: “How can the identification of war criminals become inevitable?” The conversation aims to foster a framework where every piece of evidence contributes to establishing accountability and uncovering the truth.

The event is scheduled for December 18 in Kyiv. (The event venue will be disclosed to registered and confirmed participants). 

Featured speakers:

– Oleksandr Pavlichenko, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union;

– Karina Buhaichenko and Vladyslava Kobko, Investigative Journalists with the Slidstvo.Info;

– Bohdan Okhrimenko, Head of the Secretariat of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War in Ukraine;

– Dmytro Osypov, Head of the Second Division for the Department for Procedural Guidance and Support of Public Prosecution of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed in the Context of Armed Conflict, Office of the Prosecutor General;

– Denys Polischuk, Head of the Kyiv Office at the Kharkiv Human Rights Group. 

Moderator: Mykhailo Savva, Permanent Expert at the Center for Civil Liberties. 

Topics will include expanding the evidence base, the functioning of international mechanisms to identify perpetrators, secure channels for information sharing among families and witnesses, and approaches to preserve victims’ dignity throughout documentation processes. Representatives from the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War in Ukraine and the Office of the Prosecutor General will also present their new initiative, Pokayanie (Repentance), which seeks to identify individuals involved in war crimes.

Attendance is by prior registration only.

• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Azat Azatian has been uprooted three times in his life. As a child, he left Armenia with his family. In 2014, he fled the russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region. And in 2022, he once again found himself under occupation, this time in Berdiansk, in the Zaporizhia region.

When russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Azat began volunteering in Berdiansk. He brought food to people stranded for hours at checkpoints and helped civilians evacuate to Ukrainian-controlled territory. That work drew the attention of russian forces. Azat was abducted, held in captivity for 43 days, and subjected to torture. He later said that thoughts of his wife and three children were what allowed him to endure the ordeal.

After managing to leave the occupied territory and undergo medical treatment, Azat chose not to retreat into private life. Instead, he returned to helping others. He went on to open 11 assistance centers for displaced people, providing support to those who, like him, had lost their homes and sense of security.

In 2025, alongside other civilians who had survived captivity, Azat co-founded the Way of the Freeman rehabilitation center in Zaporizhia. The center focuses on people who endured detention and abuse, offering free psychological counseling, legal support, and physical recovery sessions.

Azat Azatian is available to speak with people seeking support both online and in person in Zaporizhia, by prior arrangement.

• casualties
• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Zaporizhzhia

At 18, she has already endured what many adults never face. When russian forces seized Oleshky in Ukraine’s Kherson region in 2022, she was just fourteen. Her family survived the first months of the occupation in the basement of their home – without electricity, gas, or heat.

This week, Liza boarded a plane for the first time and traveled to the Netherlands to address the 24th session of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). She spoke about what it means to grow up under russian control and the toll the war continues to take on children in occupied areas.

“I am not standing here today to elicit sympathy,” she said in her remarks. “I am here to be heard, so that people know what is happening to children in the occupied territories right now.”

Liza now lives in Kyiv, where she is studying psychology and working to help support her mother and younger sister. Still, her thoughts often drift back to Oleshky. She dreams of her neighborhood almost every night. Specialists from the Voices of Children Foundation are working with her to help her process those memories and begin to heal.

Journalists can arrange interviews with Liza in Kyiv by prior request.

• children
• occupation
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Vadym Shevchenko was living with his parents in Polohy, a city in the Zaporizhia region, when russian forces seized it in early March 2022. As explosions shook their neighborhood, the family sheltered in the basement of their home, hoping the fighting would pass.

Just two weeks later, on March 15, 2022, the 25-year-old and a neighbor attempted to flee the occupied city. According to the woman who was with him, armed men in uniforms of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic stopped their car at the final checkpoint and pulled Vadym out. His mother, Olena, believes his lifelong burn scars on his hands led the occupiers to mistakenly suspect he was a soldier.

He was first detained in Melitopol and later transferred to facilities in Donetsk and Olenivka. Today, he is being held in a penal colony in Mordovia, russia. Olena sends letters through the International Committee of the Red Cross and has received two replies from her son. 

She has also learned that he has lost about 30 kilograms during his imprisonment.

Determined to help others facing hardship, Olena now volunteers with the charity “World. Ukraine. Polohy,” supporting families in frontline communities with food assistance.

Interviews with Olena can be arranged in Zaporizhia, in Kyiv, or remotely.

• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Kyiv
• Zaporizhzhia

Before the full-scale invasion, Viktoriia and Bohdan Popov ran a family workshop in Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast, working alongside their parents. Together, they kneaded clay, molded and fired products, polished, decorated, and painted each piece.

When the full-scale war broke out, the front line reached Sloviansk, and enemy shelling began to devastate the city. In April 2022, the Popovs evacuated to western Ukraine, returning nine months later to find their workshop damaged by Russian strikes. Following another nearby explosion that rendered the building unsafe, they were forced to find a new workspace.

In November 2025, a Russian shell destroyed their home. Fortunately, Viktoriia and Bohdan were away at the time. They are now living with relatives on the outskirts of Sloviansk and plan to rebuild their house. Having saved their equipment, the couple continues to create ceramics, determined to keep their craft alive.

The Popovs are available to speak with journalists, both in Sloviansk and online.

• casualties
• culture
• russian crimes

Valentyn Polianskyi is 24, but three of those years were spent in Russian captivity. A native of Ukraine’s Kherson region, he signed a contract with the 36th Separate Marine Brigade at 21 and soon found himself on the front lines of Russia’s full-scale assault. By February 26, 2022, he was stationed at the Illich steel plant in Mariupol, helping to secure provisions for approximately 130 troops as the siege tightened.

When the order to surrender was issued, his partner pleaded with him to do whatever it took to survive and come home. She was pregnant at the time; their daughter was born after he had already been taken prisoner.

Polianskyi says he endured three years of severe abuse in detention. He recalls beatings, electric shocks, routine humiliation, food deprivation, and being forced to memorize Russian songs. He was released on April 19, 2025, as part of a prisoner exchange.

After returning home, Polianskyi married and initially considered rejoining his brigade, but his wife asked him not to go back to the front. He is now working to rebuild his life and adjust to civilian routines.

Those wishing to meet or speak with him can do so, both online or in person in Khmelnytskyi, by prior arrangement.

• casualties
• military
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Khmelnytskyi

An exhibition titled Shot Down… has opened in Kyiv, showcasing fragments of russian aircraft and missiles that attacked Ukrainian cities but were intercepted before reaching their targets.

The collection includes parts of the experimental Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik-B (“Hunter-B”) stealth combat drone, remains of Shahed-136 kamikaze drones, Gerbera UAVs, downed strategic cruise and tactical guided missiles, a 9M79M ballistic missile from the Tochka-U tactical system, the fuselage of a Su-30SM fighter, a suspended ejection seat, and a parachute from a Su-35S aircraft. Recent additions include an almost intact Shahed, an upgraded Gerbera, and a fragment of a smart bomb.
The Oleg Antonov State Aviation Museum is hosting the exhibition, which is open to journalists for coverage.

• culture
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Ivan Zabavskyi, 29, was born in Tavilzhanka, a village in the Kharkiv oblast located just 20 kilometers from the russian border. Before the full-scale invasion, he moved to Kharkiv for work.

When russian forces seized part of the Kharkiv oblast, Tavilzhanka, where Ivan’s mother, Maryna, remained, was occupied. In September 2022, Ukrainian troops liberated the Kharkiv oblast, placing the village on the front line. Ivan lost contact with his mother. Despite his relatives’ pleas, he cycled back to Tavilzhanka to rescue her. During the occupation, Maryna was forced to bury her older sister, who was killed by shelling. Just one day before Ivan set out to save her, Maryna moved to another village, causing them to miss each other.

Maryna later learned that russian soldiers had kidnapped her son and taken him to russia. Ivan was accused of spying for Ukraine. In January 2025, a court in St. Petersburg sentenced Ivan to 11 years in a strict-regime penal colony. In June 2025, the Second Court of Appeal in St. Petersburg upheld the sentence, leaving it unchanged.

Ivan’s mother now frequently attends peaceful rallies organized by the NGO “Civilians in Captivity”.

Journalists can speak with Maryna in the Kharkiv oblast, in Kyiv, or online by prior arrangement.

• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Kharkiv
• Kyiv