Ukrainian civilians disappear and languish behind bars in Russian-run jails
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Alina Kapatsyna often dreams about getting a phone call from her mother. In those visions, her mother tells her that she’s coming home.
Vita Hannych, 45 years old, was taken from her eastern Ukraine home by military uniformed men in April. She never returned.
Later, Hannych’s family was informed that Hannych, who had suffered from seizures since childhood due to a brain tumor, was being held in Russian-occupied Donetsk.
Kapatsyna told The Associated Press that it remains unclear why her mother — ”a peaceful, civilian and sick person” who has never held a weapon — was detained.
Hannych is just one of the many non-combatants from Ukraine being held by Russian forces since months following their invasion. Some are considered to be prisoners-of-war, even though their participation in the fighting was not. Others are in a sort of legal limbo — not facing any criminal charges or considered to be POWs.
Hannych was still wearing slippers and a sweatsuit when she was captured by Russian forces at Volodymyrivka. This was several weeks after the invasion of February 24, 2004. It is still under Moscow’s control.
Her family thought that she would be returning home in a short time. Russian forces were known to detain people for two or three days for “filtration” and then release them, Kapatsyna said, and Hannych had no military or law enforcement connections.
Kapatsyna, 64, and her grandmother began a search for her. Initial attempts at finding answers were unsuccessful, despite letters and visits to officials and government agencies in Donetsk.
“The answers from everywhere were the same: ‘We did not take her away.’ Who took her then, if no one took her?” said Kapatsyna, who left the village in March for the Ukrainian-controlled city of Dnipro.
Then, they finally got some clarity: Hannych was jailed in Olenivka, another Russian-controlled city, according to a letter from the Moscow-installed prosecutor’s office in the Donetsk region.
The jail staff told Kapatsyna’s grandmother that Hannych was a sniper, allegations her family deems absurd, given her condition. Medical records seen by the AP confirmed that she had a brain cyst, as well as “residual encephalopathy” and “general convulsive attacks.”
Anna Vorosheva was a prisoner in the same facility as Hannych for 100 days. She described horrendous conditions, including no heat or showers, squalor and poor drinking water.
Vorosheva, 46, said she wasn’t told why she was detained, aside from “smirks and jokes about Nazis” — a reference to Russia’s false claims that what it calls its “special military operation” was a campaign to “denazify” Ukraine. She also said the staff told her: “Be happy we’re not beating you.”
Donetsk authorities called Hannych a POW. They recently informed the family that Hannych is currently being held in Mariupol, an occupied city. It’s not known when, if any, she might be released.
Ukraine’s top human rights organization, Center for Civil Liberties, has requests concerning around 900 civilians captured by Russia since the war began, with more than half still in custody.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights envoy, put the number even higher and said Friday that his office received inquiries concerning more than 20,000 “civilian hostages” detained by Russia.
Leonid Solovyov, a Russian lawyer said that he had received over 100 requests about Ukrainian civilians. He said he was able to help 30-40 confirm the person they looked for was in Russian custody without any legal status — just like his client, Mykyta Shkriabin.
In March, a Russian military detained a student from the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine. Since then, he has been kept without any charges or legal proceedings.
According to Tetiana, Shkryabin, aged 19, was hiding from the fighting in a basement together with his family. During a break, he went out for supplies — and never returned.
Tetiana Skriabina said to the AP that witnesses had told her that he was seized by Russian soldiers.
Months later, Solovyov got confirmation from Russia’s Defense Ministry that Shkriabin was detained for “resisting the special military operation.” There is no such offense on the books in Russia, Solovyov said, and even if there was, Shkriabin would have been formally charged and investigated, but that hasn’t happened. The ministry did not reveal his location.
Furthermore, Solovyov made a complaint against the Russian Investigative Committee to contest the detention. The committee confirmed that Shkriabin is not under criminal investigation and was neither an accused nor a suspect.
Skhriabin, who turned 20 in captivity, hasn’t been labeled a POW, Solovyov said, adding: “His legal status is simply a hostage.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry and the Interior Ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Some cases are very similar to those of Shkriabin, Hannych.
Iryna Horobtsova, an information technology specialist was taken into custody by Russian forces in Kherson, the southern city. It had been under Russian occupation. According to Elena Kornii’s sister, they took her home after raiding her apartment. They also confiscated a laptop and two smartphones as well as several flash drives. They promised her parents that she would be home that evening — but it didn’t happen.
Kornii stated that Horobtsova was still in the city and had spoken out against the war via social media. She was a participant in anti-Russian protests, and she also assisted residents by driving them to work and finding rare medications.
“She hasn’t violated any Ukrainian laws,” Kornii said, noting that her sister had nothing to do with the military.
Horobtsova’s lawyer, Emil Kurbedinov, said he believed that Russian security forces were carrying out “purges of the disloyal” in Kherson.
He learned from Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, that she was still in custody. According to the Interior Ministry of Moscow-annexed Crimea, Horobtsova was being held in a Moscow detention center. Kurbedinov attempted to visit her but officials wouldn’t admit to having such a prisoner.
As for why she was held, Kurbedinov said authorities told him that “she resisted the special military operation, and a decision regarding her will be made when the special military operation is over.”
Kurbedinov described her as “unlawfully imprisoned.”
Dmytro Orlov, mayor of the occupied city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, describes the fate of his deputy the same way — “an absolutely arbitrary detention.”
Ivan Samoydyuk was picked up by Russian soldiers Shortly after you have taken possession of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Orlov claimed that no charges were filed against him in March.
“We’re not even sure if he’s alive!” the mayor said. “If we can’t get clarity from the Russians about the fate of a deputy mayor, imagine the fate of ordinary Ukrainian civilians.”
Mykhailo Savva of the Expert Council of the Center for Civil Liberties said the Geneva Conventions allow a state to detain civilians temporarily in occupied areas, but “as soon as the reason that caused the detention of this civilian disappears, then this person must be released.”
“No special conditions, no trades, just release,” Savva said, noting that civilians can’t be declared POWs under international law.
Yulia Gorbunova, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, stated that international law prohibits warring parties from forcing civilians to their territory or territories. This could be considered a war criminal.
Gorbunova explained that although POWs may be exchanged, there is no legal mechanism to swap noncombatants. It complicates efforts for civilian release from captivity.
But Kyiv has been able bring some home since the beginning of the war. Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on Jan. 8 that 132 civilians were brought back from Russian captivity in 2022.
Lubinets was the Ukrainian human rights advocate and met with Tatyana Mokalkova in Russia.
He said he gave Moskalkova lists of some of the 20,000 Ukrainian civilians he said were held by Russia, and “the Russian side agreed to find out where they are, in what condition and why they are being held.”
After getting such information, the question “of the procedure for their return” will be raised, Lubinets said.
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Dasha Litvinova was based in Tallinn, Estonia. This report was written by Yuras Karmanau, Tallinn.
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