The problem of Ukrainian prisoners in Russian prisons cannot be hushed up!
For several months now, we have been talking about the fate of 2,500 Ukrainian prisoners, who until November 2022 were in correctional institutions of the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson and the region, and then illegally and forcibly taken out by Russian security forces through Crimea to Russia.
We know every person that we managed to find in Russian prisons, colonies and TDCFCs (Temporary Detention Centers for Foreign Citizens), we live every story together, we try to do a little more than possible for everyone. With your help, we create a new "maybe" every day. Every day we take a few more steps that we believe will lead to people returning home.
Today we talk about positive experiences and frank failures.
Positive experience
In June 2019, Oleksandr was convicted by the Prilutsky District Court of the Kyiv region and ended up serving his sentence in Buchanskaya colony 85, Ukraine.
Soon the institution was disbanded and in December 2020 Alexander was transferred to IK-90 Kherson. In late October-early November 2022, Russian special services took him and 2,500 other people from Ukraine to Russian penal colonies. So Alexander ended up in the Krasnodar Territory, Russia.
After the term of serving the sentence ended, Alexander was released from the colony. But instead of being deported, he was transferred indefinitely to the Temporary Detention Center for Foreign Citizens.
There we managed to provide Alexander with ARVT, provide legal support, and already at the end of January, Sasha was at home.
What helped:
- high motivation and involvement of Alexander himself;
- mobilization of all resources available to the team for the release and return home of one person;
- uniting the efforts of both Ukrainian and Russian human rights activists;
- the readiness of all actors to act in the absence of ready-made solutions, funding, outside support, etc.
We are preparing a video about it and will share it with you soon. In the meantime, let's tell one more story where the end has not yet been put.
Negative experience.
On January 30, 2023, 14 former prisoners, citizens of Ukraine (also taken earlier from the Kherson region), who were kept in the TDCFCs of the Volgograd region for the last month, were forcibly taken to a checkpoint on the border of Latvia, the village of Ludza, for deportation from Russia.
The entire group passed the border control on the territory of Russia, most of the group managed to pass the border control on the territory of Latvia, three Ukrainians were denied entry.
After applying with a request to call the Ukrainian ambassador to Latvia and provide assistance, all 14 people were forcibly, by the forces of the Latvian special forces, taken to the territory of Russia.
Among them are people with serious illnesses that require continuous treatment.
At the moment, all 14 people are again on the territory of Russia, in the same TDCFCs where their journey began.
What did not help, but could:
- Appeal of the Ukrainians themselves to the Embassy of Ukraine in Latvia;
- UnMode's appeal to official Ukrainian structures and international organizations protecting human rights with a request to immediately intervene in the situation;
- Appeal to human rights organizations and the media;
- Critical and, in our opinion, incompetent reporting by the Latvian media on the situation.
We continue to support Ukrainians in Russian prisons and seek resources to help each of them. It seems impossible, but we, against all odds, believe in the power of civil society and the power of goodness. Good always and invariably conquers any evil.
If you know Ukrainian citizens who need help in Russian prisons or their relatives, please pass on our contacts:
e-mail: unmode.contact@gmail.com
Telegram: +380 633 71 34 37
Signal: +995 591 06 02 55
If you are a lawyer, journalist, human rights activist, specialist in the field of HIV, TB, prisoners, refugees, migrants and you have ideas, desire and time to help Ukrainian citizens in Russian prisons - please write to us.
Any support now is decisive.