UPDATE - Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko

Posted: 25th March 2026

 


 

We are deeply grateful that you took the time to raise your voice for Yurii Sheliazhenko and sign the petition asking for his release. 

 

We have some positive updates: Yurii is free.

 

However, he still is at risk of being detained at any time. Below you can find a video of Yurii recounting his experience. He was kidnapped, locked up, and tortured. He was taken to a conscription center, beaten, dragged, and pepper-sprayed in the face, threatened, mocked, and told he would need to join the military. His insistence that he was a conscientious objector, and his requests for a lawyer or a doctor were ignored.

  • HERE you can find the same video on WBW’s social media, please share widely.



  • Together with Connection e.V., European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO), International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), International Peace Bureau (IPB), War Resisters’ International (WRI) we have published a new Press Release with updates and explicit concerns.


Thank you all for the solidarity you have shown Yurii. Please continue to do so – below are some ways in which you can.


We need to urge the Ukrainian authorities to promptly and duly investigate the incident, which amounts to extremely serious human rights violations, and ensure full accountability; withdraw from persecuting and criminalizing peace activists and conscientious objectors; refrain from any practices of forced mobilization; and release all conscientious objectors to military service currently imprisoned in Ukraine.

  • Contact and write to your (and others) local Embassies in Ukraine:
  • Contact and write to the Ukrainian Embassy in your country: (this is a useful link https://mfa.gov.ua/en/diplomatic-missions/foreign-diplomatic-institutions-ukraine to search their contacts)
  • Contact political representatives in your country and in regional and international institutions
  • Contact the Kiev Police Department: [email protected], Tel. +380 44 254 94 88
  • Write to the Kiev Enlistment Office: [email protected]
  • Contact the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs: [email protected], Tel. +380 44 256 03 33
  • Contact the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense: [email protected]
  • Contact the Ukrainian Ombudsman: [email protected], Tel. +380 44 253 75 89
  • Contact the State Bureau of Investigation: [email protected], Tel. +380 44 300 27 07
  • Inform the media
  • Share on your social media, political networks, etc.
  • Share with your contacts and invite other organizations, agencies, and institutions to take action

For a world beyond war,

Annachiara Canetta
Europe Organiser
World BEYOND War
[email protected]

Find out more – call Caroline on 01722 321865 or email us.