ASTRA reported that a human rights activist from Donetsk was beaten in a police station.

This morning in occupied Donetsk, security forces broke into the home of local human rights activist Maksim Davydov. They carried out a search of his flat, detained Davydov, and took him to police station No. 2, where he was beaten, reports ASTRA, citing sources.

“They broke down his door this morning, the Centre to Counter Extremism, beat him, and took him to the police station. At the station, they let him contact me, and he sent me the documents they had forced him to sign,” the source told the outlet.

ASTRA published the search protocol, which was apparently sent to the source by Davydov. In it, the human rights activist is listed as a suspect. The document also notes that the door to his flat was forced open, and inside, security forces seized identification cards belonging to several assistants to ‘People’s Council of the Donetsk People’s Republic’ deputies, including one in Davydov’s name.

According to ASTRA, he was forced to sign certain documents.

At the end of January, the outlet reported that a criminal case had been opened against the human rights activist for document forgery (part 5, article 327 of the Criminal Code). According to local security forces, in autumn 2025, Davydov showed prosecutors a USSR citizen’s passport issued in his name that same year.

• Davydov had drawn attention to illegal mobilisation in the occupied territories and assisted local residents affected by it. In May 2025, he was fined 45,000 rubles (approximately US$500) under the article on ‘discrediting’ the Russian army (part 1, article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code), because of comments in which he criticised mobilisation in the region and described the war in Ukraine as “a very convenient cover for the implementation of genocide against Slavs.”