The historical relationship between Ukraine and Russia has been troubled because of Russia’s repeated acts of aggression and expansionism toward its neighbors. In 2003, Russia sparked a territorial dispute over the Ukrainian Tuzla Island. In February–March 2014, Russia occupied and annexed Crimea and Sevastopol, and shortly thereafter, parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. This was followed by the mass unlawful detention of Ukrainians in the occupied territories. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion, widening the war across Ukraine. Since then, no ceasefire or peace agreement has been reached, aside from limited prisoner exchanges.
Although aspects of human security were previously reflected to some extent in ceasefire and peace discussions between Ukraine and Russia, since 2022, it has not appeared to play a central role in the negotiations. This is not unusual. In most armed conflicts, the immediate priority for the parties is to stop active hostilities. However, research in peace and conflict studies consistently shows that durable peace is difficult to achieve unless human security is incorporated into ceasefire arrangements and broader political settlements.
Since 2014—intensifying after the 2022 full-scale invasion—thousands of civilians have been arbitrarily detained and transferred through a network of unofficial and official detention facilities, in the overwhelming majority without legal process or contact with families.
A distinct and organised phenomenon must be described: a pipeline of persecution that begins with the removal of persons whom occupying authorities perceive as threats and proceeds through detention, mistreatment, sham judicial processing, and long-term transfer far from families and Ukrainian institutions.
The pipeline typically begins with arbitrary arrest — local leaders, volunteers, teachers, journalists, clergy and others suspected of loyalty to Ukraine are taken from homes, workplaces and checkpoints, often without record or notice. Many are made to disappear and families receive no information; others are moved through a hidden network of basements, police stations and pre-trial detention facilities in the TOTs and inside the occupying state, with almost no contact with relatives and highly restricted independent access. Within this network, torture and other ill-treatment are routinely used to coerce confessions, compel collaboration, extract information and terrorise the communities left behind.
The purpose is to remove real and perceived community leaders and to render external loyalty to Ukraine a dangerous decision, in order to consolidate control over territory that Russia illegally occupies.
For many civilians, a layer of formal process is added without addressing the illegality, as they are brought before ‘courts’ applying Russian criminal law in the TOTs, often retroactively and without basic guarantees of independence, publicity or defence. Long terms of imprisonment are imposed for alleged support to the Ukrainian armed forces, peaceful protest or expression, followed by transfer deeper into Russia, far from families and beyond the reach of Ukrainian institutions and other assistance.
Taken together, these stages form a pipeline of persecution that is more than a sum of individual abuses. Arbitrary arrest, forcible displacement, enforced disappearance, torture and other inhumane treatment, unfair trials, and long-term illegal imprisonment of civilians from the TOTs are serious violations of international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international criminal law. When committed together on a widespread and systematic basis and directed against a civilian population, they amount to interlocking crimes against humanity. This pattern of civilian detention is a critical plank of Russia’s war of aggression on territory it has illegally seized, intended to consolidate control and suppress civic and national resistance. It is also creating a historical legacy of suffering that must be recorded and acknowledged so that these crimes are neither denied nor forgotten.
As of 2026, 90,000 people are on the Unified Register of Missing Persons; 7,000 – 8,000 Prisoners of War; 16,000 – 30,000 Civilian Hostages.
2026 is likely to see some form of negotiation between Russia, Ukraine, and the wider international community. In January 2025, two human rights organizations—both Nobel Peace Prize laureates (Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties)—launched the international People First campaign to ensure that politicians do not forget the need to free all victims of Russian aggression. This issue must be a top priority in any negotiations. Currently, dozens of organizations from various countries are already participating in the campaign.
On February 24, 2026, the European Parliament adopted Resolution 2026/2599(RSP), titled “Four years of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and European contributions to a just peace and sustained security for Ukraine.” Paragraph I of this resolution contains an important statement: “While the Military Police of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Federal Security Service, and the Federal Penitentiary Service are holding an unknown number of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians in conditions of isolation from the outside world, Ukrainian human rights organizations estimate that up to 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been unlawfully deprived of their liberty.” In paragraph 20, the European Parliament formulated the following demand: “Calls on the EU and its Member States to impose sanctions against the Military Police of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Federal Security Service, and the Federal Penitentiary Service for their systematic involvement in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture, and incommunicado detention; further calls on the EU and its member states to impose targeted sanctions against all heads of institutions and other Russian officials of Russian penal institutions in which Ukrainian civilians are unlawfully detained; calls on the EU and its member states to ban entry into the Schengen Area for Russian military personnel who participated in the war of aggression against Ukraine; Urges Member States to systematically combat the problem of sanctions evasion and ensure their full and effective implementation. This resolution, for the first time, included a call for sanctions against Russian state organizations implementing the Russian regime’s repressive policies toward Ukrainians.
In the Ukrainian context, where civilians have endured captivity, enforced disappearances, torture, and abuse, as well as prolonged displacement and widespread disruption of essential services, any sustainable future ceasefire must explicitly account for human security. Matters such as protecting civilians and holding accountable those who commit abuses must be included; otherwise, the agreement is likely to remain fragile.
We demand:
- In accordance with international law, all Ukrainian civilians captured and illegally detained by Russian forces, including those sentenced by Russian courts, be released and allowed to return home immediately and unconditionally. Those whose homes are in Russian-controlled areas should be given the opportunity to leave for Ukrainian government-controlled areas of the country, should they wish to do so.
- All illegally transferred or deported children should be returned.
- It is also essential to ensure the timely repatriation of deported Ukrainian convicts and patients of closed medical institutions, such as nursing homes and psychiatric facilities.
- All efforts are made to repatriate POWs, including those who have been convicted, through exchanges or otherwise, as soon as possible and no later than at the end of active hostilities, as required by the Geneva Conventions.
- Russian political prisoners already sentenced to prison terms or awaiting sentences in connection with their anti-war statements and actions should be released and should face no limits on their freedom of movement, including to travel abroad if they wish to do so.
- A special, independent international mechanism is established to facilitate these processes, monitor their compliance with international humanitarian law, and ensure regular, transparent reporting on progress, including updates on prisoner releases and adherence to humanitarian standards.
- Russia must provide immediate full access to all the captives and all illegally transferred or deported children for the UN agencies and the ICRC.
Integrating these elements into ceasefire and peace agreements helps create more human-centered frameworks that respond to the specific needs of local populations.
- Given that the Russian regime has long failed to fulfill its humanitarian obligations and has grossly violated international humanitarian law, we urge the Council of the European Union and the governments of European countries to consider imposing sanctions on Russian organizations that carry out repressive state policies against Ukrainians: the Military Police of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Federal Security Service, and the Federal Penitentiary Service.
Supported by:
- Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine)
- Public Association “Dignity” (Kazakhstan)
- Norwegian Helsinki Committee
- Crude Accountability (USA)
- Bir Duino-Kyrgyzstan, member of the Global campaign “People are Key” (Kyrgyzstan)
- Promo LEX Association (Moldova)
- Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law
- International Partnership for Human Rights (Belgium)
- Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor (Armenia)
- Human Rights Center Development (Georgia)
- Center for Participation and Development (Georgia)
- Freedom Files (Poland)