In December 2025, the NGO Association of Relatives of Kremlin Political Prisoners completed a public expert review of the work of the Commission on Establishing the Fact of Unlawful Deprivation of Personal Liberty and submitted it to the Ministry for Development. In response, the Ministry approved the Order “On Approving the Action Plan Aimed at Implementing the Expert Recommendations.”

What does this mean in practice?

➤ By September 2026, the Ministry is expected to review and, if necessary, update or develop new regulations concerning the protection of people who were unlawfully deprived of liberty as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. The purpose of these steps is to improve the work of the Commission and make state assistance payments more effective.

The Ministry also committed, on an ongoing basis, to:
• send members of the Commission invitations to training sessions on international humanitarian law and administrative procedures, if such trainings are held;
• process and review applications for the award of Levko Lukianenko state scholarships when they are submitted;
• ensure the payment of Levko Lukianenko scholarships in accordance with already submitted applications.

We thank the Ministry for Development for its prompt response to our public expert review and for facilitating its implementation. Our next step is to monitor how the measures outlined in the action plan will be implemented in practice.

We will continue to use the public expert review mechanism to strengthen the protection of people unlawfully deprived of liberty and to improve the effectiveness of state support.

The public expert review was carried out by the NGO Association of Relatives of Kremlin Political Prisoners with the support of the Askold and Dir Foundation, administered by ISAR Ednannia within the framework of the project “Strong Civil Society of Ukraine – A Driver of Reforms and Democracy”, funded by Norway and Sweden.

The content is the sole responsibility of the NGO Association of Relatives of Kremlin Political Prisoners and does not necessarily reflect the views of the governments of Norway, Sweden, or ISAR Ednannia.