UKRAINE: First known wartime conscientious objector jailing

46-year-old Christian Vitaly Alekseenko expects to be taken to begin his one-year jail term on 19 January. On 16 January, Ivano-Frankivsk Appeal Court rejected his appeal against his conviction for refusing call up to the military on conscientious grounds. His is the fifth known Ukrainian court conviction since Russia renewed its invasion – the other four men received suspended sentences. “I told the court I agree that I have broken the law of Ukraine,” Alekseenko told Forum 18, “but I am not guilty under the law of God.”