Ukrainian PR Army

07/09/2026

Freedom Ambassadors is an initiative by the Медійна ініціатива за права людини . A politician or public figure takes personal responsibility for a specific Ukrainian civilian illegally held by Russia, and makes that person's name part of their own public position.

Thousands of civilians are held in Russian captivity, and that scale is exactly what makes the problem easy to lose in the news cycle. A number in a report doesn't have a deadline. A name raised on the floor of the European Parliament does, because someone with a public reputation is now attached to whether that case gets resolved.

Learn how it works in the carousel.

01/09/2026

On the anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, we remember the catastrophe it unleashed. But its legacy also includes the system of international humanitarian law created to prevent such crimes from being repeated.

The Fourth Geneva Convention was designed to protect civilians while war and occupation are still taking place. Yet Russia’s unlawful detention of Ukrainian civilians demonstrates that legal prohibitions do not enforce themselves.

Governments already have tools they can use: targeted sanctions, asset freezes, travel bans, national investigations, universal jurisdiction and arrest warrants. Every person involved in the system of unlawful detention — from commanders and prison officials to investigators, prosecutors and judges supporting fabricated cases — should know that participation can have consequences beyond Russia.

The lesson of the Second World War should not be limited to remembrance after the destruction has already occurred. Accountability must create pressure before another civilian disappears.

The project is produced by PR Army with the support of the Askold and Dir Fund as a part of the Strong Civil Society of Ukraine — a Driver towards Reforms and Democracy project, implemented by ISAR Ednannia, funded by Norway and Sweden. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of PR Army and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Government of Norway, the Government of Sweden and ISAR Ednannia.

31/08/2026

This summer, Russian social media has been full of complaints: Crimea's resorts are half-empty, hotel bookings are down sharply, and tourists are grumbling that a peninsula once marketed as Russia's crown jewel beach destination is no longer worth the trip.

That framing, Crimea as a resort built for Russian consumption, is not new. It is the same logic Moscow has applied to the peninsula since imperial times, through the Soviet era, when Crimea was turned into a mass health resort for the whole USSR. The land exists to serve the vacationer. The people who actually live there do not factor into the equation.

While Moscow used Crimea for their imperial project, Crimea's indigenous population, the Crimean Tatars, were ignored at best. At worst, they are removed from the picture entirely: deported in 1944, and today prosecuted, imprisoned, and disappeared under Russian occupation.

While Russians complain online about a disrupted holiday, hundreds of Crimean Tatars are being held as civilian hostages on that same peninsula, singled out specifically because Russian authorities view them as a threat.

Aishe Kurtamet's son Appaz was abducted in 2022 and sentenced to seven years on fabricated terrorism-financing charges. A year later, her ex-husband Khalil was taken too and sentenced to eight. Their alleged crime: ties to Crimean Tatar community and cultural life.

One of these is a lost vacation. The other is a family that hasn't been whole in years.

The project is produced by PR Army with the support of the Askold and Dir Fund as a part of the Strong Civil Society of Ukraine — a Driver towards Reforms and Democracy project, implemented by ISAR Ednannia, funded by Norway and Sweden. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of PR Army and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Government of Norway, the Government of Sweden and ISAR Ednannia.

24/08/2026

Ukraine marks its independence on August 24. It has been 35 years since we won our freedom.

It was brought closer from inside labor camps and jails, by people sentenced for the mere idea of a free Ukraine.

Some of them lived to see 24 August 1991 as free men. Others "celebrated" behind bars.

Today, the same fight has new names. Crimean Tatars, journalists, civilians – Russia prosecutes them for the same "crimes": for their beliefs, for their language, for refusing to stay silent.

We want to remember those fighting for our independence, then and now.

🇺🇦Glory to Ukraine! Glory to heroes!

The project is produced by PR Army with the support of the Askold and Dir Fund as a part of the Strong Civil Society of Ukraine — a Driver towards Reforms and Democracy project, implemented by ISAR Ednannia, funded by Norway and Sweden. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of PR Army and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Government of Norway, the Government of Sweden and ISAR Ednannia.

14/08/2026

❗More than 16,000 civilians detained by Russia during the war in Ukraine are still held, many incommunicado, and the number keeps climbing the longer this war runs.

At an informal UN Security Council session this week, called by Latvia and the UK, the UN's Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Claudia Fuentes Julio put a number on it that's hard to sit with. Over 16,000 Ukrainian civilians remain deprived of their liberty, many held incommunicado on grounds that don't meet the basic standards of international law.

Russia still hasn't granted the UN access to detention facilities inside the country. What investigators have been able to piece together comes from interviews with 910 released Ukrainian POWs and 403 released civilian detainees.

🔹 95%+ of released POWs report torture
🔹 85%+ of released civilian detainees report torture
🔹 129 executions documented
🔹 48 deaths in custody documented

Crimean Tatar human rights defender Leniie Umerova testified to the Council directly. She was detained on fabricated charges while trying to visit her dying father in occupied Crimea, then moved through seven facilities over six months, seized again at the prison gate the moment a court ordered her release. She named at least 84 women currently facing criminal prosecution in Russia and Russian-occupied territory.

Civilian hostages fall outside the legal frameworks built for prisoners of war, so there is no clear mechanism, timeline, or accountability structure for their release. Sixteen thousand people are waiting on a policy failure the EU and its member states have the tools to name and act on now.

📍Source: https://www.euronews.com/2026/08/12/more-than-16000-civilians-detained-by-russia-in-its-invasion-of-ukraine-are-still-held-un-

31/07/2026

Ukrainian PR Army supported British artist Piers Secunda and filmmaker David Miller in bringing Nature Morte: The Extermination of Ukraine to London, an exhibition opening on August 12.

The exhibition presents a series of still lifes of traditional Ukrainian dishes and ingredients, painted with charcoal ink Secunda made himself, from charcoal collected after the first missile strike on the Kharkiv regional administration building in 2022. Behind each painting is an archive of evidence. QR codes link to the names, faces, and documentation of those responsible for Russia's destruction of Ukrainian culture and national identity, including the deportation of Ukrainian children, alongside a map recording over 5,000 cases of cultural damage across Ukraine.

🖼️ The exhibition is accompanied by a 40-minute documentary by David Miller, which follows Secunda's research across Ukraine between 2024 and 2026 to identify the Russians targeting Ukraine's culture and national identity.

PR Army's Advocacy Manager Khrystyna Shkudor organized interviews and facilitated filming across multiple locations in Ukraine. PR Army researcher Vladyslav Havrylov served as scientific advisor to the exhibition.

📍 Fitzrovia Gallery, London. August 12 to September 6

23/07/2026

❗Civilian hostages shouldn't exist. In Russia's war against Ukraine, they do, and Europe still doesn't have a clear way to talk about them.

Anastasiia Marushevska , co-founder of Ukrainian PR Army and the Where Are Our People? , in her new article for Українська правда points to a real gap. The international system has clear frameworks for POWs and, more recently, for deported Ukrainian children. Civilian hostages have neither.

Her argument is that Europe keeps treating each fabricated conviction as its own legal case, asking whether the trial was fair or whether there was evidence, when the detention itself is illegitimate from the start. Russia detains mayors, journalists, teachers, and relatives of servicemen for their identity rather than any documented act, then convicts them on fabricated charges.

🇪🇺The EU has responded through sanctions, most recently against 15 individuals and one facility on 13 July 2026, including the Taganrog remand prison where journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna died in custody. That still addresses conditions of detention rather than the decision to detain.

📍 Anastasiia calls for a dedicated sanctions track covering the full chain: occupation officials, investigators, judges, and the media figures who legitimize these sentences. And she wants Europe to treat this as a system of state hostage-taking, not a humanitarian side issue.

🔗 📰Full piece https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/columns/2026/07/11/8043596/

The project is produced by PR Army with the support of the Askold and Dir Fund as a part of the Strong Civil Society of Ukraine — a Driver towards Reforms and Democracy project, implemented by ISAR Ednannia, funded by Norway and Sweden. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of PR Army and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Government of Norway, the Government of Sweden and ISAR Ednannia.

Civilian hostages should not exist. Yet in Russia's war against Ukraine, they do. People are abducted, held incommunicado, tortured, transferred to Russia and sentenced on fabricated charges. What does not exist is a clear, accepted legal category to name and address this practice.

09/07/2026

Appaz Kurtamet was 19 when he was taken off the street in the occupied Kherson region in July 2022. A year later, his father Khalil was abducted too. Both are Crimean Tatars. Both were sentenced by illegitimate Russian courts on fabricated charges – Appaz to 7 years, Khalil to 8.

Their mother and ex-wife, Aishe, has spent years chasing rumors, false calls, and contradictory answers from Russian checkpoints, never knowing for months at a time whether her son was alive.

This is not an isolated case. It's part of Russia's decades-long persecution of Crimean Tatars, the Indigenous people of Crimea.

👉 Swipe through to learn their story.

The project is produced by PR Army with the support of the Askold and Dir Fund as a part of the Strong Civil Society of Ukraine — a Driver towards Reforms and Democracy project, implemented by ISAR Ednannia, funded by Norway and Sweden. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of PR Army and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Government of Norway, the Government of Sweden and ISAR Ednannia

24/06/2026

Unlawful deportation is one of the most under-reported war crimes coming out of Russian-occupied Ukraine. Civilians get detained, run through so-called "filtration," and then officially "deported." What actually happens to them after that is a different story.

Olena Yahupova was told she was being sent to safety. Instead, she was quietly handed over to a Russian military unit and put to forced labour at the front line, digging trenches for two months under armed guard.

She survived the interrogations before that, the captivity, the labour camp, all of it. Then she came forward and testified anyway, knowing it could put her at risk.
Her case made it to a courtroom. Most don't.

For every Olena who testifies, there are people whose stories never get past a closed door.

Swipe through to see what she lived through. ⤵

The project is produced by PR Army with the support of the Askold and Dir Fund as a part of the Strong Civil Society of Ukraine — a Driver towards Reforms and Democracy project, implemented by ISAR Ednannia, funded by Norway and Sweden. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of PR Army and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Government of Norway, the Government of Sweden and ISAR Ednannia.

04/06/2026

Kajsa Ollongren recorded a special address for our testimony event in Stockholm, organised by Ukrainian PR Army together with Stockholm Free World Forum (Frivärld) and Nordic Ukraine Forum .

She currently serves as EU Special Representative for Human Rights. Before that, she was Minister of Defence, Minister of the Interior, and Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

Appaz Kurtamet was detained by the FSB at 19, tortured, and sentenced to 7 years in a strict-regime colony in Russia's Pskov region.

Appaz's mother, Aishe Kurtamet, also spoke at the event. She described the forced labour, torture, and pressure on her son to appear in Russian propaganda videos.

Kajsa Ollongren is Appaz's ambassador as part of the Advocacy Mentorship Initiative by Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Thank you, Kajsa, for standing with Appaz and this project!

The project is produced by PR Army with the support of the Askold and Dir Fund as a part of the Strong Civil Society of Ukraine — a Driver towards Reforms and Democracy project, implemented by ISAR Ednannia, funded by Norway and Sweden. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of PR Army and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Government of Norway, the Government of Sweden and ISAR Ednannia.’