War in Ukraine: where are they? Ukrainian civilians disappear in Russian prisons

Alina Kapatsyna often dreams of receiving a call from her mother. In those visions, her mother tells her she will be coming home.

In April, men in military uniforms took Vita Hannych, 45, from her home in eastern Ukraine. Don’t go back anymore.

His family later learned that Hannych, who suffered for a long time seizures due to a brain cysthe is being held in the Russian-occupied part of the Donetsk region.

Kapatsyna stated that she does Associated press that it is unclear why his mother, “a peaceful, civilized and sick person” who had never held a gun, was arrested.

Hannych is one of a group of several Ukrainian non-combatants being held by Russian forces for months after their invasion.

Ukrainians in legal limbo

Some are considered prisoners of war, even if they have never participated in combat. Others are in a sort of legal limbo: they were not charged with any criminal charges nor are they considered prisoners of war. Ukrainian estimates of the number of prisoners range from hundreds to thousands.

Hannych was wearing only jogging bottoms and sneakers when she was captured by Russian forces who occupied her town, Volodymyrivka, several weeks after the February 24 invasion. She is still under the control of Moscow.

Initially, his family he thought he would be home soon. Russian forces were known to hold people for two or three days to “select” them and then release them, Kapatsyna said, and Hannych had no ties to the military or police.

When she wasn’t released, Kapatsyna and her 64-year-old grandmother launched a search. At first, letters and visits to various Russian-appointed officials and government agencies in the Donetsk region did not give any results.

“The answers everywhere were the same: ‘We didn’t take it’ for Ukraine.

Then they finally got some information: Hannych was imprisoned in Olenivka, another Russian-controlled city, according to a letter from the Moscow-created prosecutor’s office in the Donetsk region.

The prison staff told Kapatsyna’s grandmother Hannych was a sniper, an accusation that his family considers absurd, given his health problem. Medical history seen by AP confirmed she had a brain cyst, as well as “residual encephalopathy” and “general seizures”.

This was told by Anna Vorosheva, who spent a hundred days in the same center as Hannych they lived in miserable and inhumane conditions: rotten drinking water, no heat or showers, having to sleep in shifts and hearing the new inmates scream from the beatings they received.

Vorosheva, 46, said she was not told why she was being held, aside “Nazi Giggles and Jokes”, a reference to Russia’s false claims that what it calls a “special military operation” was a campaign to “denazify” Ukraine. He also said that staff told him, “Be glad we’re not hitting you.”

Donetsk authorities have classified Hannych as a prisoner of war and recently told the family that she is being held in the occupied city of Mariupol. It is not yet clear when, if at all, she might be released.

cross figures

Ukraine’s leading human rights organization, the Center for Civil Liberties, has reports of some 900 civilians captured by Russia since the war began, and more than half are still in detention.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights envoy, raised the figure further, saying on Friday his office had received inquiries regarding more than 20,000 “civilian hostages” held for Russia.

Russian lawyer Leonid Solovyov told the AP he has accumulated more than 100 applications involving Ukrainian civilians. He said he was able to help 30 or 40 people confirm that the person they were looking for was in Russian detention. without any legal statusjust like his client, Mykyta Shkriabin.

The student from Ukraine’s Kharkiv region in the north-east of the country was arrested by the Russian army in March and has since been jailed without charge or trial.

Shkriabin, then 19, had taken refuge from the fighting in a basement with his family, according to his mother, Tetiana. During a break, he went out for supplies and never came back.

Tetiana Shkriabina told the AP she found out witnesses that Russian soldiers had taken him away.

Months later, Solovyov obtained confirmation from the Russian Defense Ministry that Shkriabin had been arrested for “resisting the special military operation”. According to Solovyov, there is no such crime in Russia, and even if there were, Shkriabin would have been formally charged and investigated, but that was not the case. The Ministry declined to disclose his whereabouts.

Furthermore, when Solovyov filed a complaint with the Russian Investigative Committee questioning the detention, he confirmed that there is no open criminal investigation against Shkriabin and that he is not a suspect or defendant.

Shkriabin, who served 20 years in captivity, was not classified as a prisoner of war, the lawyer said, adding: “His legal status is simply that of a hostage”.

The Russian Defense Ministry and the Interior Ministry They did not respond to requests for statements..

Other cases are eerily similar to those of Shkriabin and Hannych.

In May, Russian forces were arrested Iryna Horobtsovaan information technology specialist, in the southern city of Kherson, when it was occupied by Moscow.

They broke into her apartment, confiscated a laptop, two cell phones and several USB flash drives and took her away, according to her sister, Elena Kornii. They promised his parents that he would come home that night, but he didn’t.

Horobtsova had stayed in the city and spoke out against the war on social media before being arrested, Kornii said. He had attended the anti-Russian protests and had even helped some neighbors by taking them to work or getting them scarce medicines.

“He didn’t violate any Ukrainian law,” Kornii said, noting that his sister had nothing to do with the military.

Horobtsova’s lawyer Emil Kurbedinov said he believed Russian security forces were carrying out “unfair purges” in Gerson.

He learned from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) that Horobtsova was still being held. The Interior Ministry of Crimea, annexed to Moscow, told him that Horobtsova was being held in a detention center there. When Kurbedinov tried to visit her, officials refused to acknowledge the existence of such a prisoner.

As for the reason for his arrest, the lawyer said authorities told him that “resisted the special military operationand a decision will be made on the termination of the special military operation.”

Kurbedinov characterized his condition as “illegally detained”.

Dmytro Orlov, mayor of the occupied city of Enerhodar, Zaporizhzhia region, similarly describes the fate of his deputy: “a absolutely arbitrary detention“.

Ivan Samoydyuk was arrested by Russian soldiers shortly after the seizure of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in March and no charges have been filed against him, according to Orlov.

“We’re not even sure he’s alive!” the mayor said. “If Russians don’t tell us the fate of a deputy mayor, imagine the fate of ordinary Ukrainian civilians.”

possible war crimes

Mykhailo Savva, of the Center for Civil Liberties’ Expert Council, said the Geneva Conventions allow a state to temporarily detain civilians in occupied areas, but “as soon as the reason that caused that civilian to be detained disappears, that person should be released“.

“No special conditions, no barter, just release,” Savva said, noting that civilians cannot be declared prisoners of war under international law.

International law prohibits a warring party from forcibly removing a civilian to its territory or to the territory it occupies, and this could considered a war crimesaid Yulia Gorbunova, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Prisoners of war can be exchanged, but there is no legal mechanism for exchanging noncombatants, Gorbunova said, complicating efforts to free civilians from captivity.

However, since the beginning of the war, Kiev has been able to bring something home. Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on Jan. 8 132 civilians had been rescued from Russian captivity in 2022.

Lubinets, a Ukrainian human rights defender, met his Russian counterpart, Tatyana Moskalkova, this month.

He said he provided Moskalkova with lists of some of the 20,000 Ukrainian civilians he said were being held by Russia, and “the Russian side agreed to find out where they areunder what conditions and why they are detained”.

Once that information is obtained, the question “of the procedure for their return” will be raised, Lubinets said.

Translation: Elisa Carnelli

Source: Associated Press