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Oleh Baturin

HRD, Editor-in-Chief
"Novy Den" ("New Day")

Oleh Baturin is a Ukrainian journalist and human rights defender from Kakhovka, Kherson region. He is the editor-in-chief of the "Novy Den" ("New Day") media outlet. Since 2014, Oleh Baturin has extensively covered human rights violations in the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia and the unrecognized People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. Since the beginning of Russia’s full scale military invasion and war on Ukraine, the human rights defender has documented human rights violations being carried out by the Russian military.

Before the escalation of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by the Russian Federation, the key concerns regarding the situation of human rights defenders (HRDs) in Ukraine were characterised mainly by systemic impediments to the rights to freedom of assembly, association, and personal liberty. In many cases, HRDs were subjected to intimidation, harassment, and attacks, while violence against journalists was tolerated by the authorities. The situation was exacerbated by pervasive corruption in all branches of government and limitations on workers’ rights to strike.