400 older persons were evacuated from the Veterans’ House in the Kirovskyi district of Donetsk, and 417 patients of a psychiatric clinic in the city of Torez. On 13 August, it was reported that the situation of the 200 patients of the Horlivka Mental Hospital was critical due to the lack of electricity, water, food and medication. Many patients came from Semenivka Mental Hospital near Slovyansk which was completely destroyed during the fighting. Many older persons have been left behind when their families fled the fighting, increasing their vulnerability. Prisoners held in the east have been another group at risk. On 29 July, 272 prisoners from a women’s prison, located in Chervonopartyzansk (Luhansk region), were evacuated to other prisons around the country due to fighting in the immediate vicinity. The penal colony No. 124, was hit by artillery shells on the outskirts of Donetsk city during the night of 10/11 August, resulting in the death of one prisoner, and injures to five prisoners and two guards. D.Arbitrary and illegal detention124 and enforced disappearances Detention by Ukrainian armed forces and police As the Government’s security operation continues, Ukrainian armed forces are gaining back control over more localities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that were previously seized by armed groups. A number of people suspected of collaborating with or belonging to the armed groups have been detained by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), by territorial battalions under the Ministry of Defence, or by special battalions under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. From mid-April until 16 August, more than 1,000 “militants and subversives” had been detained by police and SBU in the Donbas territory, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The detainees are usually accused of violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine (Article 110 of the Criminal Code) or participating in terrorism (Article 258 of the Criminal Code). The cases followed by the HRMMU suggest that there have been violations of the criminal procedural law during some of these arrests, particularly regarding detention by the volunteer battalions. People are being detained without being given any explanation, for example while they were leaving the security operation areas affected by the fighting and security operation, and questioned without being delivered to law enforcement agencies. The presumption of innocence and privacy rights of those detained have been violated when their apprehension was filmed and made public through the Internet and TV. Detainee’s relatives were often not notified about the detention, and legal aid was rarely made available. According to the Criminal Code, an illegal detention is a crime, and as a consequence, the individual who is unlawfully detained must be immediately released. This does not seem to have been the case for those arrests which the HRMMU followed: in the few cases of what appeared to be arbitrary detention that were brought to the attention of a court, releases have been rare. On 8 July 2014, servicemen of the Aydar battalion under the Ministry of Internal Affairs detained the deputy head of Shchastya town administration. According to his relatives, he was accused of “separatism”. Reportedly, he was released on 29 July. However, the HRMMU has no information about any criminal investigations initiated against him or the people who were in charge of his detention. On 5 August, the head of the Mariupol city police was detained by the leader of the Radical Party of Ukraine, Oleh Lyashko (MP) and servicemen of the Shakhtarsk battalion under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Mr Lyashko uploaded a video of the detention to an open source, accusing the detainee of “collaboration with the separatists”. However, the detainee was released on the same day of his detention, and the HRMMU has no 124 United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regards as detention all forms of deprivation of liberty. 204 | P a g e