Evacuation under the gunpoint of a sniper, beatings, hunger and bullying of russian soldiers - today UnMode, on behalf of its beneficiaries, filed 15 allegations of war crimes to the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine. In the future, these data will be consolidated and transferred to the International Criminal Court.
Since the beginning of the war unleashed by russia on the territory of Ukraine, our Organization has monitored cases of human rights violations among detainees in the countries of presence, including in the territories of Ukraine under russian occupation. Over the past two years, UnMode human rights activists have documented cases of torture, defended the rights of prisoners in prisons in the territories occupied by russia, and supported people who were forcibly taken to the territory of the aggressor. Our method of protecting human rights is based on direct contact and communication with victims, which helps us build trust and receive first-hand information.
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In the period from October 22 to November 6, more than 2,500 prisoners - Ukrainian citizens - were taken by the occupation authorities of russia through the Crimea to the territory of the russian federation from the Golopristan colony N7 of the Kherson region. As a human rights organization, we affirm that this process was carried out with cruel violations of all norms, procedures and against the will of the prisoners themselves. In addition, the Ukrainian side was not provided with any official data on the places of redistribution of former Ukrainian prisoners, so human rights activists do not have access to information about the place of stay, health status and the general situation in the places of serving sentences in russia for the most part of the transported Ukrainian prisoners.
Moreover, even relatives cannot get information about the place of stay of Ukrainians; there is no connection with the vast majority of people from the deported stage.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of fixed procedures for the return of released citizens of this category to their homeland, ex-Ukrainian prisoners are moved indefinitely to organizations of the TDCFC (temporary detention centers for foreign citizens, where people are placed by court order) throughout russia.
We argue that staying in the TDCFCs is illegal, in addition, this deprives Ukrainian citizens who have already been released on the territory of russia of their procedural status and a few rights in the status of convicts (for example, access to treatment).
Since January 2023, UnMode has been providing Ukrainian prisoners forcibly relocated to Russia with comprehensive, diverse support, including providing direct legal assistance for release, as well as assistance in organizing a safe exit from russia to Ukraine.
As for today we helped 39 former Ukrainian prisoners get back from home. The total number of escorted beneficiaries is 78, this figure is increasing daily.