Ukraine returned human rights defender Maksym Butkevych from Russian captivity

Ukrainian human rights defender, journalist and military officer Maksym Butkevych was released from Russian captivity.

This was reported by his father Oleksandr Butkevych in a comment by the ZMINA Center for Human Rights.

He said that the Coordination Headquarters called him and informed him that his son was exchanged as part of the exchange of prisoners of war — he is already in Ukraine. Previously, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation spoke about the exchange in the "95 for 95" format, Ukraine has not yet reported on this.

Human rights defender Maksym Butkevich joined the ranks of defenders of Ukraine at the beginning of March 2022. Russian propagandists announced his capture in the area of the captured Zolote and Hirske points (Luhansk region) on June 24, 2022, publishing a video of the interrogation.

In March 2023, the Russian court "LPR" sentenced Butkevych to 13 years in prison. The occupiers found him "guilty of war crimes": in Severodonetsk, Butkevych allegedly fired a grenade launcher at the entrance of a residential building, injuring two people.

For several months, nothing was known about the whereabouts of the founder of "Public Radio" Maksym Butkevych. After the meeting of the appeals court, which took place on August 22, 2023, Maksym Butkevych was to be transported from the court to the prison after the verdict. However, already in December it became clear that he was in a colony in the occupied part of the Luhansk region.

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