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On 1 March 2023, Yevhen Zakharov, director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG), addressed the European Parliament’s sub-committee on human rights, and described the fate of Ukraine’s citizens in territories now occupied by Russia. This is an updated version of his address.

One year ago, Russia launched a massive invasion of Ukraine. The 'hybrid warfare' of the previous eight years became a full-blown aggressive war on a scale unseen in Europe since 1939. A statement by International Memorial.

FIDH and its members worldwide call on international institutions and governments to ramp up efforts to ensure justice in Ukraine as a means of promoting international peace and security.

On the anniversary of Russia’s invasion: An Appeal by the “First of December Action Group”.

As Ukraine awaited a new invasion, Russia continued to shell and bomb its villages, towns and cities. On Monday 9 January 2023, for instance, bombs and shells took civilian lives in the city of Kherson and in the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk Regions, wounding people there and in the Mykolaiv Region further to the west.

Last month, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) published yet another intercepted phone call. They recorded a conversation between Russian soldiers about the war crimes they committed, and why.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

“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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

“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.

In early July, a conference was held in West Ukraine concerning “The impact of military operations in Ukraine on the environment and human rights: a challenge to humanity” (4−6 July 2022).

On Sunday, 11 September, Vovchansk was one of dozens of towns and villages liberated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. A month ago, Iryna Skachko described the use to which its largest factory was put during months of enemy occupation.