Advocate of the Association, Inna Shurman, participated in a meeting with delegates of the Moscow Mechanism mission of the OSCE, which focused on the issue of arbitrary detention of Ukrainian civilians by Russia. During the meeting, Ukrainian human rights activists and relatives of detainees informed OSCE experts about how Russia abducts, imprisons, and tortures residents of the occupied regions of Ukraine and Crimea.

Ms. Inna provided examples of blatant violations of the rights of residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions based on over 100 cases of arbitrary detentions identified by the Association. She emphasized that at the time of the abduction, the victims were civilians and did not offer armed resistance — the occupying forces unjustly deprived them of their liberty. All detainees were subjected to psychological violence, and all detained men, without exception, experienced torture, including electric shock.

Former military personnel, activists, representatives of local self-government, and educational institution employees are most often targeted by Russian aggressors. Those who had authority among the population were demanded to publicly support the newly arrived "authorities" in order to diminish peaceful resistance and spread fear of expressing one's will. In addition, Ms. Inna discussed a systematic campaign of abductions of personnel from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Employees were coerced into loyalty and signing labor contracts with a Russian state-owned company controlled by the Rosatom concern through threats and torture.

The main places of illegal detention in the Zaporizhzhia region include police departments, isolation wards, basements, and makeshift garages-turned-prisons. Often, civilians are held together with prisoners of war and individuals who have committed criminal offenses in the same premises. There are also known cases of joint detention with Russian military personnel who have committed war crimes such as looting and rape.

Civilians are not only held in overcrowded damp premises without access to water, food, or fresh air but are also forcibly "deported" to territories under Ukrainian control. By the decision of the occupying authorities, people are forced to walk through a 15-kilometer mined territory from the town of Vasylivka towards Zaporizhzhia. There are cases where, after filming their forced expulsion, some civilians never appeared in the Ukrainian-controlled territory and are currently missing under mysterious circumstances.

This is only a part of the crimes against the civilian population highlighted by the discussion participants. Documenting these crimes will help hold the aggressor accountable, particularly through the application of the Moscow Mechanism of the OSCE.

The Moscow Mechanism is a special procedure that allows for the creation of an independent international mission whose task is to study the available database on violations of the rights of civilians and, based on the results of the investigation, prepare a report.

The facts gathered within the framework of the Moscow Mechanism can serve as a basis for the establishment of an International Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, which will allow holding accountable the higher political and military leadership of Russia.

We thank the participants of the meeting for their assistance in restoring justice and providing the opportunity to tell the truth about the situation in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region.