Today, the national human rights award For Personal Contribution to Protection of Human Rights in Ukraine in 2021 is finally in the hands of volunteer Liudmyla Huseinova, who had been held hostage by occupiers in the torture chambers of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) for three years. The awarding ceremony took place at the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU). All this time the prize had been kept by Olha Musafirova.
“All this time, we did not lose hope for Liudmyla’s release from the Donetsk prison, where she spent more than three years. The article for “extremism” under which Liuda [Liudmyla for short] was accused provides for long terms of imprisonment, up to the higher degree of punishment,” notes Lina Kushch.
“I could have been shot dead,” Liudmyla Huseinova said during the award presentation. The entire accusation was based on posts, shares and “likes” on Liudmyla’s Facebook account. “Investigation” carefully studied all the posts and found them “denying the territorial integrity of the DPR,” “containing negative characteristics of DPR servicemen as occupiers,” “unequivocally negative in terms of giving characteristics to the “Russian World” and Russia.”
Prison and sentences for posts and shares on social networks are the realities of occupied territories. An aggravating factor for Liudmyla was the fact that she was a source of information for the Ukrainian mass media: she told journalists about life in occupied Novoazovsk. The “investigator” even ordered an examination of those messages for journalists. The conclusion was as follows: disseminated information is a state secret, but this data can be used to the detriment of the “republic,” so it is forbidden to transmit it.
It cost Liudmyla incredible efforts not to break down, to endure everything and wait for release. Now she plans to tell about her experience in a book. Sergiy Tomilenko, the President of the NUJU, handed over a laptop to Liudmyla Huseinova to let her work on these memoirs, to record the war crimes committed by Russia against adults and children in the occupied territory.
“Friends, colleagues, like-minded people came to congratulate and support our volunteer and journalist. It was a touching meeting and a very serious conversation. Liberation from captivity is only the beginning. We all need the strength to fight for those women and men who are illegally detained in the occupied territory for their pro-Ukrainian views. And this topic should be on the agenda of both the Ukrainian authorities and the Ukrainian media,” Lina Kushch emphasizes.
As earlier reported, Liudmyla Huseinova was imprisoned in the so-called DPR from October 9, 2019 until the exchange of prisoners on October 17, 2022. The reason for the detention was her work as a volunteer. After 2014, the woman took care of orphaned children who actually lived on the front line in the village of Prymorske, Donetsk Region.
