#Russian occupation

Refusing to bow to an occupier in Russia’s world labels you as “mentally ill.” Through forced diagnoses, drugging, and institutionalizing—even children—Russia’s modern occupation of Ukraine echoes a horrifying Soviet tactic: punitive psychiatry.

Russia is using torture and coercion to forcibly enlist Ukrainian civilians from occupied territory into the Russian army and fight against their own country. Eradicating Ukrainian identity is a systematic, violent, and planned process by Russian forces to use the lives of Ukrainians, instead of their own.

"Current whereabouts remain unknown" is the reality for many Ukrainian journalists captured and detained by Russian forces. Even before the full-scale invasion in 2022, reporters covering Russian aggression in occupied territories faced arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, and torture—a pattern that continues today.

Russell Bentley, an American defector was detained, tortured, and killed in a concentration camp in Donetsk, a new report reveals. The camp, operating under Russian military command, is known for the brutal treatment of prisoners, including Russian soldiers.

For centuries, Russia has tried to eradicate dissent—including in territories it colonized—by sending political prisoners to penal colonies across its empire. Today, this system has mutated once again—this time, in newly occupied Ukraine.