Articles

02 February 2023

‘Five people were killed there, including a pregnant woman’

Kharkiv resident Kateryna Ryndych talks about the bombing of Northern Saltivka.
31 January 2023

‘People held up the tracks with crowbars so our train could pass through’

An inhabitant of a village burned to the ground was evacuated from Kramatorsk one day before the tragedy at the train station.
28 January 2023

Sterilizing syringes with vodka and digging shrapnel out of the back

Hanna Shevchyk, 31, used to work in a maternity hospital in Mariupol. She had to spend a month in the bomb shelter. Her war story is different from others due to medical details, and shows how you can still save lives when there’s a lack of medicines.
22 January 2023

Helping people and gathering evidence: the KHPG in 2022

KHPG director Yevhen Zakharov recalls the challenges of 2022 and shows that the work of human rights defenders is also indispensable in wartime.
20 January 2023

War stories will be heard in nine languages — Memorial’s project

The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group and Memorial organizations in the Czech Republic, Poland, France, Italy, and Germany to publish personal war stories of Ukrainians, 4-5 monthly.
28 December 2022

Homes and lives destroyed in northern Ukraine

The Russian invader left the Chernihiv Region (northwest Ukraine) six months ago. A team of lawyers and monitors from the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group went there to talk to the locals.
28 December 2022

Ukraine must ratify the Rome Statute now, says Nobel laureate

Ukraine signed the Rome Statute as long ago as 20 January 2000. It must ratify it as soon as possible, says Oleksandra Matviichuk, joint winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
12 December 2022

Goodness and truth must be able to protect themselves: Nobel Lecture by Ales Bialiatski

Nobel Lecture given by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2022 Ales Bialiatski, delivered by Natallia Pinchuk, Oslo, 10 December 2022.
12 December 2022

Peace, memory, freedom: Nobel Lecture by Memorial

Nobel Lecture given by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2022 Memorial, delivered by Jan Rachinsky, Oslo, 10 December 2022.
12 December 2022

Time to take responsibility: Nobel Lecture by Center for Civil Liberties

Nobel Lecture given by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2022 Center for Civil Liberties, delivered by Oleksandra Matviichuk, Oslo, 10 December 2022.
10 December 2022

Stolen washing machines, phosphorus bombs and abandoned Russian corpses

‘How could a person in his right mind do such things?’ (Alla Korzurina) The six-month nightmare endured by a village near Kharkiv, used first as a base and then as a target by Russian forces.
05 December 2022

Responsibility for attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

Shelling of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was accompanied by statements of high-ranking Russian officials confirming that these sites were being targeted and admitting that such sites were part of the country’s civilian infrastructure.
02 December 2022

The Russians ‘amused themselves’, destroying Izyum’s old buildings

Serhiy was hit by a cluster bomb and had to crawl to the nearest house for help. Russian forces were shelling a town they already occupied, of that he is convinced.
01 December 2022

Oleg Orlov: They wanted fascism. They got it

Who is to blame for Russia going fascist? The simplest answer is Putin. He is to blame, of course. But aside from him, a host of other people led to this, even if they were not necessarily consciously heading in this direction. A great many people are nostalgic for the Empire, for the ‘strong hand’, for a Stalin who only existed in myth.
30 November 2022

Damage to historical monuments and religious buildings (24 February to 15 November 2022, Kharkiv Region)

The Hryhoriy Skovoroda Museum was destroyed; the Holocaust Memorial Complex, the oldest Orthodox church in Kharkiv and the city mosque were all damaged.
17 November 2022

Bodies of 63 Ukrainians tortured by Russians already found in liberated Kherson Region

11 places have already been found in liberated parts of Kherson Region, where the Russian occupiers held Ukrainian civilians prisoner.
16 November 2022

Vasylenkove, a village on the frontline

Ukrainian soldiers were based only five kilometres away. Russian troops dug trenches around the houses and set up their artillery unit at the school. Little now remains of the school: empty cans and shell casings are scattered over its charred remains.
10 November 2022

Almost every school in Mariupol was damaged. A KHPG investigation

During Russia’s assault on the city, we discovered, 52 (83%) of the city’s schools were damaged in one way or another. Mariupol residents described direct attacks on kindergartens and schools.
10 November 2022

Genocide and the acts defined by that crime: Some thoughts

The deliberate actions of the enemy’s forces in Ukraine, its missile attacks on civilian targets and crucial infrastructure, and intentional mass murder together point to a single goal: genocide.
08 November 2022

Russia takes Ukrainian children prisoner in 'first wave of deportation'

As feared, Russia and its local collaborators are refusing to return Ukrainian children who were supposedly sent on holiday or to study in Russia or occupied Crimea.
03 November 2022

Attacks on distribution of humanitarian aid and on evacuation convoys

Russian forces have frequently attacked the distribution of humanitarian aid and evacuation convoys, seizing the aid and the transport sent to evacuate civilians.
14 October 2022

On receiving the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize: A statement by Memorial

A State that neglects the human rights of its citizens inevitably becomes a threat to peace.
14 October 2022

‘For Our Freedom and for Yours!’ Oleksandra Matviichuk, Centre for Civil Liberties (Kyiv)

“My entire 20-year experience of fighting for freedom and human rights has convinced me that people exercise a far greater influence that they ever realise. All our achievements are down to them”. Speech at a press conference about the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.
13 October 2022

Genocide in Ukraine. The example of Mariupol

The aim of Russia’s war against Ukraine is to destroy the Ukrainian State and those who resist the aggressor. This genocidal intention has been implemented differently in various parts of the country. This abridged article concerns the city of Mariupol.