Mariupol human rights activist taken hostage

Oleksandr Kudinov, a well-known human rights activist disappeared in Donetsk on Sept 22 and is assumed to have been taken prisoner by Kremlin-backed militants. The Mariupol website 062 reports that contact with him was lost while he was travelling to the city Novy Svet.  That evening his wife Iryna received a text message from an unknown phone saying that he had been taken prisoner.

Oleksandr Kudinov is 47 and a former police officer.  According to Viktor Maistrenko, Kudinov has been active recently in helping to secure the release of people imprisoned by the militants of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people’s republic.