A roundup of news from the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG), one of the oldest human rights organizations in Ukraine. Since 2014, KHPG has been documenting war crimes in eastern Ukraine, and since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it has been documenting events that show signs of crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes) across all regions of Ukraine. KHPG is one of the founders of the T4P (Tribunal for Putin) initiative, which brings together more than two dozen organizations with the aim of holding Russia accountable for the crimes committed.
How Russia Kills Ukrainian Children
Over the years of the full-scale war, hundreds of children have been killed and thousands injured. This is not accidental, but the result of regular Russian attacks on civilians.
As of May 25, 2026, the full-scale war in Ukraine had claimed the lives of 705 children, while another 2,527 had been injured. These figures come from the official state portal “Children of War”. However, they reflect only verified cases. The actual number of child victims may be significantly higher, as collecting information in active combat zones and temporarily occupied territories is currently impossible.
UNICEF also emphasizes that children in Ukraine remain one of the most vulnerable groups during the war. According to the organization, the number of child casualties increased by 10% over the past year compared to 2024. This marks the third consecutive year in which UN-confirmed child casualties in Ukraine have risen.
- Read in Ukrainian Як Росія вбиває українських дітей
Threatened with Electric Shocks and Forbidden to Mention Ukraine
In mid-May, Ukraine succeeded in bringing back seven children and teenagers from Russian occupation. The story describes childhood under conditions of constant pressure, threats, and militarization.
- Read in Ukrainian Залякували електрошокером і забороняли згадувати Україну
“Good Faith,” Mandatory Reconciliation Periods in Divorce, and the Exclusion of LGBTI Couples: Why the New Civil Code Draft Is Being Criticized
The new Civil Code was intended to become a major reform of private law. In this article, the KHPG analyzes why the new draft Civil Code has become a source of controversy and presents different opinions on the proposal. Member of Parliament Inna Sovsun explains why she voted against the draft, which provisions she considers the most problematic, and whether the document can still be amended before its second reading. Feminist activist Victoria @victoria.feminist also draws attention to the potential consequences of the new draft for women.
- Read in Ukrainian ”Доброзвичайність“, час на примирення при розлученні та ігнорування ЛГБТ-пар: чому критикують новий проєкт Цивільного кодексу
Without Food, Water, or a Way to Leave
Ukraine’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have reported a humanitarian catastrophe in the occupied areas of the Kherson region: more than 6,000 people are in need of humanitarian assistance, including around 200 children. Most of those requiring help are people with limited mobility.
Civilians forced to catch pigeons for food and collect rainwater. Children hiding in basements with their parents during shelling. Elderly people unable to withdraw money because doing so requires traveling to another settlement along roads under attack. The dead whose bodies can no longer be buried, mined streets, and drone strikes. These are just a few examples of daily life in the city of Oleshky.
The KHPG reports on the humanitarian catastrophe in the Russian-occupied left-bank part of the Kherson region, including Oleshky, Hola Prystan, as well as Stara Zburivka and Nova Zburivka.
Deportation to Hell: Forcible Transfer of Ukrainian Prisoners to Russia
The report was prepared by DIGNITY in cooperation with the Ukrainian civil society organisations Protection of Prisoners of Ukraine and the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. The evidence behind the report based on 233 testimonies collected from current or former prisoners deprived of their liberty in Ukraine.
The report ‘Deportation to Hell’ documents the deportation of approximately 1,700 Ukrainian prisoners— Ukrainian citizens and foreign nationals serving custodial sentences at the time of the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 — from occupied Ukrainian territory to prisons in the Russian Federation in November 2022. Throughout the deportation process, prisoners were subjected to physical and psychological ill-treatment and held in inhumane conditions. They described beatings, prolonged stress positions, humiliation, and threats of physical or sexual violence, often because of their nationality and their actual or perceived support for Ukraine. ll interviewees consistently reported being deprived of their right to maintain contact with their families after deportation to the Russian Federation. According to documentation gathered, neither the Government of Ukraine nor the families of prisoners were notified by the Russian authorities about the transfer and deportation of Ukrainian prisoners to Occupied Crimea or the Russian Federation. After release, many faced further hardships. The report documents detention in Russian Federation migration centres for alleged illegal entry into Russia, despite having been forcibly brought there, or expulsions to third countries, often without documents or means to return home.
The analysed testimony accounts indicate that the deportation of Ukrainian prisoners in November 2022, carried out by members of the Russian occupying forces and authorities, including various special forces units, and the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia (FSIN) likely constitutes the war crime of unlawful deportation pursuant to Article 8(2)(a)(vii)-1of the Rome Statute. In particular, the information suggests that the victims were protected persons under international humanitarian law who were unlawfully transferred from occupied territory to the territory of the Russian Federation, in the absence of circumstances justifying evacuation on grounds of the security of
the population or imperative military necessity under international humanitarian law. The reviewed information further indicates that such conduct may also amount to crime against humanity of deportation under Article 7(1)(d) of the Rome Statute, insofar as the deportations appear to have been carried out as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State policy.
Around 300 Ukrainian prisoners remain in prison in the Russian Federation.
“In the ‘DPR’ torture chambers, they used electric shocks and filed teeth”
Daniil Bulgakov is a programmer from Donetsk. After the city was occupied in 2014, he moved to Kharkiv to study. In 2020, Daniil returned home to care for his seriously ill grandmother. But soon, the 22-year-old student was detained by officers of the “DPR” MGB (Ministry of State Security) and accused of “spying for Ukraine.” Daniil spent three years and four months in Russian captivity, during which he was subjected to horrific torture.
The publication is created in the framework of the project “Documenting and analysing international crimes committed by the Russia’s armed forces after 24.02.2022, helping victims of these crimes and informing on crimes” implemented by Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Center for Civil Liberties and ADC Memorial Brussels, funded by the European Union.
