Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Civilians Targeted By Unlawful Detentions, Disappearances, Torture In Eastern Ukraine, Watchdogs Say
By Eugen Tomiuc
Civilians have been subjected to extended arbitrary detention, disappearances, and even torture by both sides in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, two leading rights watchdogs warn in a joint report.
The July 21 report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses Ukrainian authorities and pro-Kyiv paramilitary groups of holding civilians suspected of supporting or having connections with Russia-backed separatists. It says separatists incarcerated civilians suspected of backing or spying for the Ukrainian government.
In some cases, detainees were used as a negotiation chip for prisoner exchanges, the groups say in the report, titled You Don’t Exist: Arbitrary Detentions, Enforced Disappearances, And Torture In Eastern Ukraine.
The rights groups say they were driven to join forces by the magnitude of the problem.
"The reason why we speak with one voice is because the problem of arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances and torture in connection with the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine is very big and demands immediate action by all sides involved in the conflict," HRW’s Tanya Lokshina told RFE/RL.
The groups looked in detail at 18 alleged cases of arbitrary, prolonged detention of civilians by both sides in the conflict, which has claimed more than 9,400 lives since April 2014.
The report says that, in most cases studied, civilians were held without any contact with the outside world, including with their families or attorneys.
Most of those detained were ill-treated and even tortured, and some were denied medical care for injuries sustained in detention, the report says.
The report says pro-government forces, including volunteer battalions, detained civilians, then handed them over to Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), which ultimately moved them into the regular criminal justice system.
Russia-backed separatists, meanwhile, held civilians in isolation for weeks or months without charge and, in most cases, subjected them to ill-treatment, the report notes. In the territories held by the separatists -- parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces -- local security forces operate in a complete rule-of-law vacuum, it says.
Detained, Tortured By Both Sides
One case, that of a 39-year-old man which the report names only as Vadim, stands out in particular, because it says he was held in secret detention and tortured by both sides.
Vadim was apprehended by Ukrainian forces in April 2015, the report says, while traveling on a bus from Ukrainian-controlled Slavyansk to his hometown of Donetsk -- one of the main cities held by Russia-backed separatists. It says he was questioned by Ukrainian forces about his ties in Slavyansk, called a “separatist thug,” then kept in unacknowledged detention at a base, interrogated and tortured, then transferred to another facility, which the report says was maintained by SBU personnel.
The groups say Vadim spent another six weeks there without any contact with the outside world, was tortured with electric shocks, burned with cigarettes, and beaten by interrogators demanding he admit he had ties with the separatists. After he was released, the report says, he returned to Donetsk only to be immediately arrested by the Russia-backed authorities, who kept him incommunicado for another two months and beat and ill-treated him over suspicions he had been recruited by the SBU during his previous captivity.
The report warns that all people held by the warring sides in eastern Ukraine are protected under international human rights law.
"International human rights law, international humanitarian law ban arbitrary detention, torture, and ill-treatment. The ban on torture is absolute. Torture is, in fact, a war crime," HRW’s Lokshina said.
In some cases, the report says, detentions constituted enforced disappearances, because “the authorities in question refused to acknowledge the detention of the person or refused to provide any information on their whereabouts or fate.”
A particularly serious accusation in the report is that captors on either used the possible release of detainees as a bargaining chip for prisoner exchanges.
"Almost in all of the 18 cases that we investigated for the purposes of our joint report, release of civilian detainees was at some point described by the relevant side in the context of prisoner exchanges," Lokshina said.
In nine out of the 18 cases, they were in fact exchanged, says the document, noting that the practice raises grave suspicions that civilians may be detained intentionally for bargaining purposes.
'Deeply Entrenched Practices'
While it is difficult to estimate the actual number of civilians who have fallen victim to such abuses, the document quotes the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which stated in a report last month that “arbitrary detention, torture, and ill-treatment remain deeply entrenched practices” in the region.
"The cases we documented jointly with Amnesty International may only represent the tip of an iceberg," said HRW’s Lokshina.
The two watchdogs call on both the Ukrainian government and the separatists who hold parts of eastern Ukraine to “immediately to put an end to enforced disappearances and arbitrary and incommunicado detentions.
They call on both sides to apply “zero-tolerance” for torture and ill-treatment of detainees, and urge them to thoroughly investigate accusations of torture and ill-treatment in detention and hold those found responsible to account.
An excerpt:
KIEV -- The people who blew up journalist Pavel Sheremet in the center of Ukraine’s capital this morning knew exactly what they were doing. His death stabbed at the hearts of independent journalists in countries all over the former Soviet Union—countries where the press is under siege.
For them, the 44-year-old Sheremet was not just a reporter, he was a journalistic institution, and the founder, not least, of a school in Kiev for young reporters. He published newspaper articles, spoke on Radio Vesti, and expressed his strong opinions on blogs and social networks.
For two decades Sheremet’s sharp reports attacked dictators and dictatorial regimes. He was fearless, much like his old friend Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who also was a victim of assassination.
At about 7:45 Wednesday morning Sheremet was driving his girlfriend’s Subaru to work at Radio Vesti when the vehicle exploded at the corner of Bagdan Khmelnitsky Avenue near a popular MacDonald’s. The journalist’s legs were just … gone. Bleeding massively, he struggled to crawl out of the car. Several people rushed to the burning vehicle, but there was no hope.
Trump Raises Questions About U.S.'s NATO Commitment To Baltics
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says if he were president he would not automatically come to the aid of the Baltic states if they were invaded by Russia.
Trump said in an interview with The New York Times published on July 20 that he would first review whether such countries had "fulfilled their obligations to us" before deciding whether come to their aid in the event of an attack by Russia.
The comments follow previous statements by Trump questioning the commitment of unnamed NATO members who he has said are not contributing as much as they should to the alliance, complaining that Washington was shouldering too much of NATO's financial burden.
Not coming to the aid of a NATO ally under attack would violate Article 5 of the alliance's North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an attack on any member state is considered an attack on every NATO member.
Trump said U.S. allies would "adjust to his approach" and he would "prefer to be able to continue" existing agreements. But he said that would only be possible if U.S. allies stop taking advantage of Washington's generosity to always foot the bill, which he said the country can no longer afford.