Latest news with #PeopleFirst
Epoch Times
7 days ago
- Business
- Epoch Times
Taxing Unrealised Gains Discourages Australians from Managing Their Money: Senator Rennick
People First Senator Gerard Rennick has said the Labor government's proposed superannuation tax will impose a heavier burden on self-managing super funds, effectively discouraging people from handling their own retirement money. This comes as Labor is pushing for the super tax bill to pass the Senate after it was approved by the House of Representatives in October 2024. If passed, the bill would lift the tax rate on earnings from super balances above $3 million (US$1.95 million) in the accumulation phase from 15 to 30 percent from July 1, 2025. During the 2022 federal election campaign, Labor leaders, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was the then-opposition leader, stated that the party had 'no intention of making any super changes.' However, after Labor won the election, the party went back on its promise by introducing the proposed tax in 2023. A controversial aspect of the bill is that it now targets 'unrealised capital gains' in super portfolios. Related Stories 5/19/2025 5/12/2025 This means superannuation members and those managing their self-managed super funds (SMSFs) will be required to pay an annual tax on increases in the value of their portfolio assets—even if those assets have not been sold. Financial experts have raised concerns about this unusual approach, which has not been adopted by any developed country so far. In a recent discussion paper ( 'Superannuants may be incentivised to realise gains more frequently to avoid accumulating large unrealised gains subject to taxation, even if it is not optimal from a long-term investment perspective,' he wrote. 'This could lead to higher portfolio turnover, increased transaction costs, and potentially lower overall returns for superannuation account holders.' Other distorted investment decisions included increasing liquidity in super funds to pay unrealised gains, and shifting to less productive assets to avoid higher taxes. Wilson Asset estimated that Labor' super tax scheme would result in economic efficiency losses of $94.5 billion. An elderly couple walk in Sydney, Australia, on June 2, Super Funds Will Face Higher Costs Rennick, who has 25 years of experience in the finance sector, pointed out another potential consequence of Labor's super tax—a significant increase in compliance costs for those who run SMSFs. As the new tax will apply to unrealised capital gains, super funds and SMSF trustees may need to regularly value their non-liquid assets, such as properties and shares. However, Rennick noted that SMSF trustees would face higher costs than larger super funds when valuing the same amount of assets. 'If you're an industry fund and there's a million people [in it], then that cost of doing it over a million people is shared,' he told The Epoch Times. '[You can have] a billion dollars inside an industry fund that needs one valuation. Or you can have 1,000 people with a million-dollar property each.' 'So the cost of compliance [for 1,000 people] is higher because you don't get the economies of scale. The cost of running a self-managed super fund is going to increase significantly.' Furthermore, the senator stated that there were risks associated with the valuation process of unlisted assets, as it could be very subjective. '[You will need to appoint] an auditor, an accountant, or a valuer. It is going to be very painful,' he said. Liberal Senator Gerard Rennick during Senate Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra, April 6, 2022. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas A More Effective Way to Raise Taxes Rennick questioned Labor's idea of taxing unrealised capital gains instead of opting for a more effective tax measure. 'If they want to raise more money, [they can] raise more money by taxing incomes in the retirement phase above a certain level,' he said. '[Currently], there's no tax on your income in superannuation once you've retired, regardless of what your income is. Why wouldn't you bring a tax in on that?' The senator gave an example: a person earning $100,000 annually from their superannuation in retirement could have the first $50,000 tax-free, with the remaining $50,000 subject to tax. According to data from the Australian Taxation Office, there are 646,168 SMSFs with 1,197,293 members as of March 2025. The total estimated value of assets held by these funds is around $1.01 trillion. Australia Has An Expenditure Problem, Not Revenue One: Director Amid the Labor's government attempt to collect more tax from working people, Wilson pointed out that Australia does not have a revenue problem. 'The federal governments already collects $700 billion in taxation revenue and is the fourth highest in the developed world for income tax to GDP,' he said. 'We do not have a revenue problem in Australia, we have a well-documented expenditure problem. 'Expenditure reform should be the focus to restore budget confidence, not the taxing of unrealised gains on superannuation.'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Girl, 18, forced to sing Russian anthem under scorching sun: how Ukrainian teenagers become Russia's hostages
Russian security forces at the border forced an 18-year-old Ukrainian girl, taken to Russia against her will by her parents, to memorise and sing the Russian national anthem under the scorching sun. Source: Olena Rozvadovska, co-founder of the charitable foundation Voices of Children, during the advocacy event People First, organised by the Center for Civil Liberties Quote from Rozvadovska: "There is a girl – let's call her Ivanka. She has recently turned 18. She was 15 when the full-scale invasion began. She was born and raised in a city that is now occupied. Her parents have sided with Russia." Despite her parents' support for the Russian invaders, Ivanka remained determined to stay in Ukraine. They forcibly took her to Russia, promising a 'heavenly life' with the chance to attend school and later university in Moscow or St Petersburg." Details: Ivanka (name changed for security reasons) has persistently sought ways to get back to Ukraine, keeping in touch with her Ukrainian classmates and her teacher. The girl refused to obtain a Russian passport, even though her parents insisted. A big fight broke out at home. She ultimately ran away and travelled all the way from Russia to Ukraine on her own. "The worst thing she describes is the experience of being interrogated by the Federal Security Service (FSB) while crossing the border," Rozvadovska says. "When we meet with such children in Kyiv, they say this is the most traumatic thing." Ivanka was questioned by FSB officers wearing balaclavas. After they searched her phone and found a message reading "Glory to Ukraine", the interrogation intensified. "They forced her to sing the Russian anthem, but she didn't know the words. They made her memorise it under the scorching sun, not even allowing her to stand in the shade. She was exhausted and terrified," Rozvadovska explained. Eventually, Ivanka managed to sing the anthem. One of the FSB officers sang along but made several mistakes – neither he nor the girl knew the lyrics properly, highlighting the absurdity of the situation. Ivanka now lives in Kyiv. But according to Rozvadovska, her case is one of the "softest" the Voices of Children foundation has encountered. "Many children who came back from Russia report physical violence, psychological pressure, and manipulation. They were told things like, 'Nobody is waiting for you in Ukraine'," she said. Many return in a severe psychological state, struggling with anxiety, fear and difficulty trusting others. Some have been receiving psychological rehabilitation for over a year. "When we celebrate the return of one, two, ten children – it's actually just the beginning of a new chapter for them," Rozvadovska added. Hundreds of children have been brought back, either independently, with volunteers, or through initiatives like Bring Kids Back. However, the number is still only a fraction of the whole. "Many of these children were taken when they were infants or toddlers. They are growing up under systematic manipulation and propaganda. In Russian schools, they are completely cut off from Ukrainian identity. They are not allowed to contact Ukraine. They are being brainwashed," she explained. Human rights activist Oleksandra Matviichuk, Head of the Center for Civil Liberties and a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, noted that while Ukrainian authorities report the illegal deportation of about 19,000 children, the real number could be much higher. The People First campaign was launched to keep the issue of child deportations and other Russian war crimes against Ukrainians in the global political spotlight. Read also: Deportation as a weapon: the tragic fate of children from the Oleshky boarding school Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Chicago Tribune
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are still held by Russia with uncertain hope of release
When she heard her front door open almost two years ago, Kostiantyn Zinovkin's mother thought her son had returned home because he forgot something. Instead, men in balaclavas burst into the apartment in Melitopol, a southern Ukrainian city occupied by Russian forces. They said Zinovkin was detained for a minor infraction and would be released soon. They used his key to enter, said his wife, Liusiena, and searched the flat so thoroughly that they tore it apart 'into molecules.' But Zinovkin wasn't released. Weeks after his May 2023 arrest, the Russians told his mother he was plotting a terrorist attack. He's now standing trial on charges his family calls absurd. Zinovkin is one of thousands of civilians in Russian captivity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists their release, along with prisoners of war, will be an important step toward ending the 3-year-old war. So far, it hasn't appeared high on the agenda in U.S. talks with Moscow and Kyiv. 'While politicians discuss natural resources, possible territorial concessions, geopolitical interests and even Zelenskyy's suit in the Oval Office, they're not talking about people,' said Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Center for Civil Liberties, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. Thousands held In January, the center and other Ukrainian and Russian rights groups launched 'People First,' a campaign that says any peace settlement must prioritize the release of everyone they say are captives, including Russians jailed for protesting the war, as well as Ukrainian children who were illegally deported. 'You can't achieve sustainable peace without taking into account the human dimension,' Matviichuk told The Associated Press. It's unknown how many Ukrainian civilians are in custody, both in occupied regions and in Russia. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets has estimated over 20,000. Matviichuk says her group received over 4,000 requests to help civilian detainees. She notes it's against international law to detain noncombatants in war. Oleg Orlov, co-founder of the Russian rights group Memorial, says advocates know at least 1,672 Ukrainian civilians are in Moscow's custody. 'There's a larger number of them that we don't know about,' added Orlov, whose organization won the Nobel alongside Matviichuk's group and is involved in People First. Detained without charges Many are detained for months without charges and don't know why they're being held, Orlov said. Russian soldiers detained Mykyta Shkriabin, then 19, in Ukraine's Kharkiv region in March 2022. He left the basement where his family was sheltering from fighting to get supplies and never returned. Shkriabin was detained even though he wasn't charged with a crime, said his lawyer, Leonid Solovyov. In 2023, the authorities began referring to him as a prisoner of war, a status Solovyov seeks to contest since the student wasn't a combatant. Shkriabin's mother, Tetiana, told AP last month she still doesn't know where her son is held. In three years, she's received two letters from him saying he's doing well and that she shouldn't worry. She's hoping for 'a prisoner exchange, a repatriation, or something,' Shkriabina said. Without hope, 'how does one hang in there?' Terrorism, treason and espionage Others face charges that their relatives say are fabricated. After being seized in Melitopol, Zinovkin was jailed for over two years and charged with seven offenses, including plotting a terrorist attack, assembling weapons and high treason, his wife Liusiena Zinovkina told AP, describing the charges as 'absurd.' While vocally pro-Ukrainian and against Russia's occupation, her husband couldn't plot to bomb anyone and had no weapons skills, she said. Especially nonsensical is the treason charge, she said, because Russian law stipulates that only its citizens can be charged with that crime, and Zinovkin has never held Russian citizenship, unless it was forced upon him in jail. A conviction could bring life in prison. Ukrainian civilian Serhii Tsyhipa, 63, was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 13 years in a maximum-security prison after he disappeared in March 2022 while walking his dog in Nova Kakhovka in the partially occupied Kherson region, said his wife, Olena. The dog also vanished. Tsyhipa, a journalist, was wearing a jacket with a large red cross sewn on it. Both he and his wife, Olena, had those jackets, she told AP, because they volunteered to distribute food and other essentials when Russian troops invaded. Serhii Tsyhipa protested the occupation, and Olena believes that led to his arrest. He was held for months in Crimea and finally charged with espionage in December 2022. Almost a year later, in October 2023, Tsyhipa was convicted and sentenced in a trial that lasted only three hearings. He appealed, but his sentence was upheld. 'But the Russian authorities must understand that we are fighting — that we are doing everything possible to bring him home,' she said. Mykhailo Savva of the Expert Council of the Center for Civil Liberties said rights advocates know of 307 Ukrainian civilians convicted in Russia on criminal charges — usually espionage or treason, if the person held a Russian passport, but also terrorism and extremism. He said that in Ukraine's occupied territories, Russians see activists, community leaders and journalists as 'the greatest threat.' Winning release for those already serving sentences would be an uphill battle, advocates say. Held in harsh conditions Relatives must piece together scraps of information about prison conditions. Zinovkina said she has received letters from her husband who told her of problems with his sight, teeth and back. Former prisoners also told her of cramped, cold basement cells in a jail in Rostov, where he's being held. She believes her husband was pressured to sign a confession. A man who met him in jail told her Kostiantyn 'confessed to everything they wanted him to, so the worst is over' for him. Orlov said Ukrainian POWs and civilians are known to be held in harsh conditions, where allegations of abuse and torture are common. A recent report by the U.N. Human Rights Council's commission of inquiry on Ukraine said Russia 'committed enforced disappearances and torture as crimes against humanity,' part of a 'systematic attack against the civilian population and pursuant to a coordinated state policy.' It said Russia 'detained large numbers of civilians,' jailed them in occupied Ukraine or deported them to Russia, and 'systematically used torture against certain categories of detainees to extract information, coerce, and intimidate.' The Kremlin tested those methods during the two wars it waged in Chechnya in the 1990s and 2000s, well before invading Ukraine, said Orlov, who recently went to Ukraine to document Russia's human rights violations and saw the pattern repeated from the North Caucasus conflicts. 'Essentially, a misanthropic system has been created, and everyone who falls into it ends up in hell,' added Matviichuk, the Ukrainian human rights advocate. Russia's Defense Ministry, the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Federal Security Service did not respond to requests for comment. Tempering hope with patience As the U.S. talks about a ceasefire, relatives continue to press for the captives' release. Liusiena Zinovkina says she hasn't abandoned hope as her husband, now 35, stands trial but is tempering her expectations. 'I see that it's not as simple as the American president thought. It's not that easy to come to an agreement with Russia,' she said, reminding herself 'to be patient. It will happen, but not tomorrow.' Olena Tsyhipa said every minute counts for her husband, whose health has deteriorated. 'My belief in his return is unwavering,' she said. 'We just have to wait.'
Washington Post
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are still held by Russia with uncertain hope of release
When she heard her front door open almost two years ago, Kostiantyn Zinovkin's mother thought her son had returned home because he forgot something. Instead, men in balaclavas burst into the apartment in Melitopol, a southern Ukrainian city occupied by Russian forces . They said Zinovkin was detained for a minor infraction and would be released soon. They used his key to enter, said his wife, Liusiena, and searched the flat so thoroughly that they tore it apart 'into molecules.' But Zinovkin wasn't released. Weeks after his May 2023 arrest, the Russians told his mother he was plotting a terrorist attack. He's now standing trial on charges his family calls absurd. Zinovkin is one of thousands of civilians in Russian captivity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists their release, along with prisoners of war, will be an important step toward ending the 3-year-old war. So far, it hasn't appeared high on the agenda in U.S. talks with Moscow and Kyiv. 'While politicians discuss natural resources, possible territorial concessions, geopolitical interests and even Zelenskyy's suit in the Oval Office, they're not talking about people,' said Oleksandra Matviichuk , head of the Center for Civil Liberties, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. In January, the center and other Ukrainian and Russian rights groups launched 'People First,' a campaign that says any peace settlement must prioritize the release of everyone they say are captives, including Russians jailed for protesting the war, as well as Ukrainian children who were illegally deported . 'You can't achieve sustainable peace without taking into account the human dimension,' Matviichuk told The Associated Press. It's unknown how many Ukrainian civilians are in custody, both in occupied regions and in Russia. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets has estimated over 20,000. Matviichuk says her group received over 4,000 requests to help civilian detainees. She notes it's against international law to detain noncombatants in war. Oleg Orlov , co-founder of the Russian rights group Memorial , says advocates know at least 1,672 Ukrainian civilians are in Moscow's custody. 'There's a larger number of them that we don't know about,' added Orlov, whose organization won the Nobel alongside Matviichuk's group and is involved in People First. Many are detained for months without charges and don't know why they're being held, Orlov said. Russian soldiers detained Mykyta Shkriabin, then 19, in Ukraine's Kharkiv region in March 2022. He left the basement where his family was sheltering from fighting to get supplies and never returned. Shkriabin was detained even though he wasn't charged with a crime, said his lawyer, Leonid Solovyov. In 2023, the authorities began referring to him as a POW, a status Solovyov seeks to contest since the student wasn't a combatant. Shkriabin's mother, Tetiana, told AP last month she still doesn't know where her son is held. In three years, she's received two letters from him saying he's doing well and that she shouldn't worry. She's hoping for 'a prisoner exchange, a repatriation, or something,' Shkriabina said. Without hope, 'how does one hang in there?' Others face charges that their relatives say are fabricated. After being seized in Melitopol, Zinovkin was jailed for over two years and charged with seven offenses, including plotting a terrorist attack, assembling weapons and high treason, his wife Liusiena Zinovkina told AP, describing the charges as 'absurd.' While vocally pro-Ukrainian and against Russia's occupation, her husband couldn't plot to bomb anyone and had no weapons skills, she said. Especially nonsensical is the treason charge, she said, because Russian law stipulates that only its citizens can be charged with that crime, and Zinovkin has never held Russian citizenship, unless it was forced upon him in jail. A conviction could bring life in prison. Ukrainian civilian Serhii Tsyhipa, 63, was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 13 years in a maximum-security prison after he disappeared in March 2022 while walking his dog in Nova Kakhovka, in the partially occupied Kherson region, said his wife, Olena. The dog also vanished. Tsyhipa, a journalist, was wearing a jacket with a large red cross sewn on it. Both he and his wife, Olena, had those jackets, she told AP, because they volunteered to distribute food and other essentials when Russian troops invaded. Serhii Tsyhipa protested the occupation, and Olena believes that led to his arrest. He was held for months in Crimea and finally charged with espionage in December 2022. Almost a year later, in October 2023, Tsyhipa was convicted and sentenced in a trial that lasted only three hearings. He appealed, but his sentence was upheld. 'But the Russian authorities must understand that we are fighting — that we are doing everything possible to bring him home,' she said. Mykhailo Savva of the Expert Council of the Center for Civil Liberties said rights advocates know of 307 Ukrainian civilians convicted in Russia on criminal charges — usually espionage or treason, if the person held a Russian passport, but also terrorism and extremism. He said that in Ukraine's occupied territories, Russians see activists, community leaders and journalists as 'the greatest threat.' Winning release for those already serving sentences would be an uphill battle, advocates say. Relatives must piece together scraps of information about prison conditions. Zinovkina said she has received letters from her husband who told her of problems with his sight, teeth and back. Former prisoners also told her of cramped, cold basement cells in a jail in Rostov, where he's being held. She believes her husband was pressured to sign a confession. A man who met him in jail told her Kostiantyn 'confessed to everything they wanted him to, so the worst is over' for him. Orlov said Ukrainian POWs and civilians are known to be held in harsh conditions, where allegations of abuse and torture are common. The Kremlin tested those methods during the two wars it waged in Chechnya in the 1990s and 2000s, well before invading Ukraine, said Orlov, who recently went to Ukraine to document Russia's human rights violations and saw the pattern repeated from the North Caucasus conflicts. 'Essentially, a misanthropic system has been created, and everyone who falls into it ends up in hell,' added Matviichuk, the Ukrainian human rights worker. A recent report by the U.N. Human Rights Council said Russia 'committed enforced disappearances and torture as crimes against humanity,' part of a 'systematic attack against the civilian population and pursuant to a coordinated state policy.' It said Russia 'detained large numbers of civilians,' jailed them in occupied Ukraine or deported them to Russia, and 'systematically used torture against certain categories of detainees to extract information, coerce, and intimidate.' Russia's Defense Ministry, the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Federal Security Service did not respond to requests for comment. As the U.S. talks about a ceasefire, relatives continue to press for the captives' release. Liusiena Zinovkina says she hasn't abandoned hope as her husband, now 35, stands trial but is tempering her expectations. 'I see that it's not as simple as the American president thought. It's not that easy to come to an agreement with Russia,' she said, reminding herself 'to be patient. It will happen, but not tomorrow.' Olena Tsyhipa said every minute counts for her husband, whose health has deteriorated. 'My belief in his return is unwavering,' she said. 'We just have to wait.' ___ Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn contributed.
Arab News
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are still held by Russia with uncertain hope of release
When she heard her front door open almost two years ago, Kostiantyn Zinovkin's mother thought her son had returned home because he forgot something. Instead, men in balaclavas burst into the apartment in Melitopol, a southern Ukrainian city occupied by Russian forces. They said Zinovkin was detained for a minor infraction and would be released soon. They used his key to enter, said his wife, Liusiena, and searched the flat so thoroughly that they tore it apart 'into molecules.' But Zinovkin wasn't released. Weeks after his May 2023 arrest, the Russians told his mother he was plotting a terrorist attack. He's now standing trial on charges his family calls absurd. Zinovkin is one of thousands of civilians in Russian captivity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insists their release, along with prisoners of war, will be an important step toward ending the 3-year-old war. So far, it hasn't appeared high on the agenda in US talks with Moscow and Kyiv. 'While politicians discuss natural resources, possible territorial concessions, geopolitical interests and even Zelensky's suit in the Oval Office, they're not talking about people,' said Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Center for Civil Liberties, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. Thousands held In January, the center and other Ukrainian and Russian rights groups launched 'People First,' a campaign that says any peace settlement must prioritize the release of everyone they say are captives, including Russians jailed for protesting the war, as well as Ukrainian children who were illegally deported. 'You can't achieve sustainable peace without taking into account the human dimension,' Matviichuk told The Associated Press. It's unknown how many Ukrainian civilians are in custody, both in occupied regions and in Russia. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets has estimated over 20,000. Matviichuk says her group received over 4,000 requests to help civilian detainees. She notes it's against international law to detain noncombatants in war. Oleg Orlov, co-founder of the Russian rights group Memorial, says advocates know at least 1,672 Ukrainian civilians are in Moscow's custody. 'There's a larger number of them that we don't know about,' added Orlov, whose organization won the Nobel alongside Matviichuk's group and is involved in People First. Detained without charges Many are detained for months without charges and don't know why they're being held, Orlov said. Russian soldiers detained Mykyta Shkriabin, then 19, in Ukraine's Kharkiv region in March 2022. He left the basement where his family was sheltering from fighting to get supplies and never returned. Shkriabin was detained even though he wasn't charged with a crime, said his lawyer, Leonid Solovyov. In 2023, the authorities began referring to him as a POW, a status Solovyov seeks to contest since the student wasn't a combatant. Shkriabin's mother, Tetiana, told AP last month she still doesn't know where her son is held. In three years, she's received two letters from him saying he's doing well and that she shouldn't worry. She's hoping for 'a prisoner exchange, a repatriation, or something,' Shkriabina said. Without hope, 'how does one hang in there?' Terrorism, treason and espionage Others face charges that their relatives say are fabricated. After being seized in Melitopol, Zinovkin was jailed for over two years and charged with seven offenses, including plotting a terrorist attack, assembling weapons and high treason, his wife Liusiena Zinovkina told AP, describing the charges as 'absurd.' While vocally pro-Ukrainian and against Russia's occupation, her husband couldn't plot to bomb anyone and had no weapons skills, she said. Especially nonsensical is the treason charge, she said, because Russian law stipulates that only its citizens can be charged with that crime, and Zinovkin has never held Russian citizenship, unless it was forced upon him in jail. A conviction could bring life in prison. Ukrainian civilian Serhii Tsyhipa, 63, was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 13 years in a maximum-security prison after he disappeared in March 2022 while walking his dog in Nova Kakhovka, in the partially occupied Kherson region, said his wife, Olena. The dog also vanished. Tsyhipa, a journalist, was wearing a jacket with a large red cross sewn on it. Both he and his wife, Olena, had those jackets, she told AP, because they volunteered to distribute food and other essentials when Russian troops invaded. Serhii Tsyhipa protested the occupation, and Olena believes that led to his arrest. He was held for months in Crimea and finally charged with espionage in December 2022. Almost a year later, in October 2023, Tsyhipa was convicted and sentenced in a trial that lasted only three hearings. He appealed, but his sentence was upheld. 'But the Russian authorities must understand that we are fighting — that we are doing everything possible to bring him home,' she said. Mykhailo Savva of the Expert Council of the Center for Civil Liberties said rights advocates know of 307 Ukrainian civilians convicted in Russia on criminal charges — usually espionage or treason, if the person held a Russian passport, but also terrorism and extremism. He said that in Ukraine's occupied territories, Russians see activists, community leaders and journalists as 'the greatest threat.' Winning release for those already serving sentences would be an uphill battle, advocates say. Held in harsh conditions Relatives must piece together scraps of information about prison conditions. Zinovkina said she has received letters from her husband who told her of problems with his sight, teeth and back. Former prisoners also told her of cramped, cold basement cells in a jail in Rostov, where he's being held. She believes her husband was pressured to sign a confession. A man who met him in jail told her Kostiantyn 'confessed to everything they wanted him to, so the worst is over' for him. Orlov said Ukrainian POWs and civilians are known to be held in harsh conditions, where allegations of abuse and torture are common. The Kremlin tested those methods during the two wars it waged in Chechnya in the 1990s and 2000s, well before invading Ukraine, said Orlov, who recently went to Ukraine to document Russia's human rights violations and saw the pattern repeated from the North Caucasus conflicts. 'Essentially, a misanthropic system has been created, and everyone who falls into it ends up in hell,' added Matviichuk, the Ukrainian human rights worker. A recent report by the UN Human Rights Council said Russia 'committed enforced disappearances and torture as crimes against humanity,' part of a 'systematic attack against the civilian population and pursuant to a coordinated state policy.' It said Russia 'detained large numbers of civilians,' jailed them in occupied Ukraine or deported them to Russia, and 'systematically used torture against certain categories of detainees to extract information, coerce, and intimidate.' Russia's Defense Ministry, the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Federal Security Service did not respond to requests for comment. Tempering hope with patience As the US talks about a ceasefire, relatives continue to press for the captives' release. Liusiena Zinovkina says she hasn't abandoned hope as her husband, now 35, stands trial but is tempering her expectations. 'I see that it's not as simple as the American president thought. It's not that easy to come to an agreement with Russia,' she said, reminding herself 'to be patient. It will happen, but not tomorrow.' Olena Tsyhipa said every minute counts for her husband, whose health has deteriorated. 'My belief in his return is unwavering,' she said. 'We just have to wait.'
