Week-ending 2 October 2026
Russia’s War against Ukraine
Russian-occupied Oleshky, across the Dnipro River from the southern city of Kherson, has become “a hell on earth”, according to Ukrainians familiar with conditions there. (The Guardian, 27/9/26)
The Russian occupation ‘Crimean high court’ has sentenced 46-year-old Oksana Kravchenko to a horrific 20-year term of imprisonment on supposed ‘treason’ charges. (KHPG, 28/9/26)
Russia plans to spend 17.1 trillion rubles ($202.58 billion) on defense in 2027, around 27% more than the sum originally budgeted. (The Moscow Times, 28/9/26)
Tofik Abdulgaziev, serving a 12-year prison term for activism in Crimea who is suffering from a malignant brain tumour has been placed in ‘a punishment cell’ for the next ten days. (KHPG, 29/9/26)
President Vladimir Putin has ordered an increase in the size of the army to 1.55 million active servicemen, according to a presidential decree on Monday. (The Guardian, 29/9/26)
The FSB opened a criminal case against London-based anti-war activist Ksenia Maximova on charges of terrorism and acting ‘in the interests of the Kyiv regime.’ (The Moscow Times, 29/9/26)
Anastasia Ivakhnenko from Samara has spent nearly two years on remand on charges of treason and terrorism. (First Department, 30/9/26)
Ukraine’s campaign in recent months has knocked out more than 45% of Russia’s refining capacity, according to Ukrainian estimates. (The Guardian, 1/10/26)
Luhansk student Kristina Odintsova was sentenced to 12 years and two months in a general-regime penal colony on charges of passing information to Ukrainian security services. (Memorial, 1/10/26)
Musician Vitaliy Chorny from Yalta in occupied Ukraine was sentencfed to 22 years’ imprisonment on charges of treason and terrorism. (KHPG, 2/10/26)
Inna Tkachenko, a Ukrainian citizen from Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia oblast), was sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment on espionage charges. (KHPG, 2/10/26)
Other news
United Russia, won a record number of seats in the State Duma. (The Moscow Times, 25/9/26)
Khodorkovsky LIVE has been designated a “foreign agent.” (Meduza, 25/9/26)
Evan Gershkovich says he was victim of an FSB sting operation. (The Moscow Times, 25/9/26)
The EU imposed sanctions against 10 Russian officials over exclusion of the Yabloko party from this month’s parliamentary elections and prosecutions of its members. (The Moscow Times, 28/9/26)
President Putin signed an executive order that places the Russian subsidiary of German retailer Metro AG under “temporary management” of the state. (The Moscow Times, 28/6/26)
The book publisher Individuum has announced its closure following the criminal prosecution of its senior managers on so-called LGBTQ+ “extremism” charges. (The Moscow Times, 28/9/26)
Yabloko Party leader Nikolai Rybakov was charged with petty hooliganism, an administrative offense, for “voting against all parties at a polling station in St. Petersburg.” (Meduza, 29/9/26)
Russian authorities launched a new round of blocking VPN services. (Meduza, 29/9/26)
Authorities in several Russian regions are turning to residents and businesses to pay for bomb shelters and protection against drone attacks. (The Moscow Times, 30/9/26)
A Russian intelligence network planned to assassinate exiled opposition figures Garry Kasparov and Ilya Ponomaryov in the United States this summer. (The Moscow Times, 30/9/26)
Jailed gulag historian and rights activist Yury Dmitriev, 70, serving a 15-year sentence has suffered a suspected stroke. Concerns remain over his access to medical care. (The Moscow Times, 1/10/26)
Aleksandr Kynev who said evidence suggested United Russia received far fewer votes than official results asserted was arrested and tortured. (RFE/RL, 2/10/26; The Moscow Times, 30/9/26; 25/9/26)
Tomsk producer Elena Matushevskaya has been remanded in a pre-trial detention centre in connection with the case on donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). (OVD-Info, 2/10/26)
Indigenous Buryat activist Marina Khankhalaeva was sentenced to 20 years in prison in absentia on extremism and terrorism charges. (The Moscow Times, 2/10/26)
Ulyanovsk’s Zavolzhsky District Court sentenced Anastasia Chumakova, founder and editor-in-chief of Astra, an exile media outlet, in absentia to seven years in prison. (Meduza, 2/10/26)
Quotes of the Week
‘According to the ‘Political Prisoners. Memorial’ human rights project, at least 5,730 people in Russia and the occupied Ukrainian territories have been deprived of liberty with signs of political motivation. This is a minimum estimate — we believe that in reality the number may be at least twice as high’
– Political Prisoners. Memorial
Source: ‘Database of the project ‘Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial,’ Political Prisoners. Memorial, 2 October 2026
*
‘One year after a targeted Russian drone strike killed French freelance photojournalist Antoni Lallican in Ukraine, MFRR partners mark the anniversary by renewing their call for effective cooperation between French and Ukrainian investigations to ensure that justice is secured. The MFRR also extends its condolences to Lallican’s family and stands in solidarity with all journalists working under extraordinary risk in Ukraine. A Russian first-person view (FPV) drone killed Lallican on October 3, 2025, in a direct strike near the town of Druzhkivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk Oblast, around 15km from the front line. He was on a reporting trip with Ukrainian photojournalist George (Heorhii) Ivanchenko. Both were accompanying Ukrainian soldiers on a reporting assignment. Lallican was killed immediately. Ivanchenko suffered serious injuries and surgeons amputated his leg soon after. One year on, the Ukrainian photojournalist is still recovering and has undergone complex surgery to fit a prosthetic leg. At the time of the strike, both Lallican and Ivanchenko were wearing protective equipment bearing visible PRESS markings. The targeted use of a drone against a reporting team clearly identifiable as press makes this one of the most shocking examples of a deliberate Russian attack on journalists in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.‘
– Article 19
Source: ‘Ukraine: Year after Antoni Lallican was killed in the field, MFRR partners demand justice,’ Article 19, 2 October 2026
