ZMINA’s Anastasiia Datsiv highlights threats to Ukrainian human rights defenders at the OSCE SHDM I pre-event

ZMINA’s European Integration Advocacy Manager, Anastasiia Datsiv, spoke at the OSCE SHDM I pre-event “Threats Facing Human Rights Defenders in the OSCE Region”, organized by the Human Rights House Foundation and the Netherlands Helsinki Committee.

The event explored repression trends against human rights defenders, highlighting key threats and personal stories from across the OSCE region. In this context, Anastasiia Datsiv emphasized:

“While pressure and harassment from national authorities remain an unfortunate trend across Europe and beyond, the case of Ukrainian human rights defenders is fundamentally different. They are exposed not only to domestic challenges, but to the direct threats posed by a foreign state – the Russian Federation.“

Over the past four years of the war, nearly 200 activists have lost their lives due to Russia’s aggression. Some were killed by direct hostilities — artillery shelling, missile and drone strikes on civilian infrastructure, targeted attacks on humanitarian and evacuation vehicles, and anti-personnel or anti-tank mines during humanitarian missions.

In other cases, particularly in occupied territories, activists were deliberately targeted and killed by Russian forces. Civilians engaged in civic work or expressing pro-Ukrainian positions have been abducted, tortured, and illegally detained.

Anastasiia Datsiv shared the stories of Iryna Danylovych, a human rights defender and citizen journalist from the occupied Crimea, sentenced to 6.11 years on fabricated charges, and Viktoriia Amelina, a war crimes documenter killed by a Russian missile while showing Colombian journalists the realities of the war.

“In addition, a significant number of civil society representatives joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, choosing to defend the country with weapons instead of continuing their work to defend civil liberties,” Datsiv added.

She voiced the case of ZMINA’s co-founder, Maksym Butkevych, who joined the army in 2022. Maksym was captured in occupied Luhansk, sentenced to 13 years on fabricated charges, and held for over two years. Following his release, he continues his human rights work, raising awareness about thousands of Ukrainian POWs and civilians detained by Russia.

“In 2025 alone, 84 civil society activists died as a result of Russia’s aggression: 25 civilian activists were killed by missile and drone attacks, and 59 died in combat after joining the armed forces to defend their country,” Datsiv said.

She underscored that wartime in Ukraine requires balancing the urgent need for security with the protection of human rights. Despite the challenges, the greatest threat to human rights defenders – and to human rights itself – remains Russia’s ongoing unlawful aggression, not only in Ukraine but across the region.