The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group announced Saturday that Russia has again used its “proxy ‘Donbas republics'” to violate international law by staging the trials and sentences of three Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The Investigative Committee of Russia has accused human rights defender and journalist Maksym Butkeyych of attempted murder and has claimed that Butkeyych shelled residential buildings in Ukraine.

The Kharkiv Human Rights Group asserts that Butkeyych was taken by Russian forces in June 2022 and has since denied access to his fundamental rights, such as access to an independent lawyer. It is further thought that a video confession given by Mr Butkeyych has been forced out of him and another two men who are taken by the Russian’s alongside Butkeyych.

The report from the Investigative Committee in Russia states that Butkevych was convicted of violating the rules of war under Article 356 § 1 of Russia’s criminal code. He has also been found guilty of attempted murder (30 § 3) and deliberate damage to property under Article 105 § 2.a, 2e. Mr Butkeyych has been sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Two other men who were arrested alongside Butkeyych are known to be Vladyslav Shel and Viktor Pokhozey, who have been sentenced to 18.5 and 8.5 years in prison, respectively.

Butkevych is one of the co-founders of Hromadske Radio and of the ZMINA Human Rights Centre which has condemned the decision, commenting that the convictions were “in violation of all possible standards of justice, and are carried out by quasi-organizations not recognized by the international community.”

Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Denis Krivosheev, has called the convictions “sham trials” which “should be considered null and void” and has furthered that “Russia must fully respect the rights of Ukrainian prisoners of war and end such sham trials and other such violations.”