Almost three years after the Russian invaders abducted Yevhen Matveyev, Mayor of Dniprorudne in Zaporizhzhia oblast, his tortured body has been returned to Ukraine. Matveyev was one of many Ukrainian mayors or other high-ranking officials whom the Russians abducted in the first months of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The news of Matveyev’s death was first reported by Ivan Fedorov, Mayor of Melitopol who was seized by the Russians slightly earlier, but was released later in an exchange of prisoners. Dniprorudne was seized by the Russians in late February 2022, with Matveyev leading unarmed local city residents in refusing to allow Russian tanks into the city. The Russians then turned back, but doubtless noted Matveyev’s role in that, as well as his patriotism generally. Fedorov calls him a true patriot who cared about the fate of his community and his country. He had not left his city and did all that he could, after the Russians gained control, to ensure that fellow residents had vital supplies, etc, while also providing daily reports to the city about what was happening. In May 2022, Anna Matveyeva spoke to Suspilne about her husband, saying that he had been so busy, he hardly returned home after the beginning of the full-scale invasion. He had organized checkpoints at each entry to the city and also groups of local residents to patrol the streets day and night. He had ensured that bread was baked in large quantities, and that those in need and the elderly received assistance. Anna says that it even became possible for babies to be delivered at the city hospital, although prior to the invasion expecting mothers had needed to travel 50-70 kilometres away.
Matveyev was abducted by the invaders at a checkpoint on 13 March 2022. He had gone there to try to secure the release of mine workers whose two buses the Russians had detained. He was seized immediately, with the Russians taking his phone away, as well as his work car. In reporting his abduction, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote that, having received zero support from local residents, the Russians were resorting to terror. In Matveyev’s case, it proved to be murderous terror, with the Mayor of Dniprorudne almost certainly tortured to death. It is two years and eight months since Matyevev was abducted and simply disappeared, and there is no information as to when he died, or even where he had been taken.
The Russians have seized public officials, journalists, civic activists and anyone with a clear pro-Ukrainian position in all parts of Ukraine that have fallen under its occupation. The fate of very many remains unknown, with it unfortunately possible that the Russians killed others and are simply not admitting to it. It is believed that two mayors, abducted in 2022, are still alive. Mayor of Kherson Ihor Kolykhaev had been held hostage for 15 months when his family at least received confirmation that he was in Russian captivity. Russia is still not admitting to holding Mayor of Hola Prystan, Oleksandr Babych, however his family have at least learned, from former prisoners and the Crimean Human Rights Group, that he was taken to occupied Crimea, and held in one of the SIZOs [remand prisons] that Russia speedily opened after its full-scale invasion. Babych has been held, effectively incommunicado, and without any charges being laid, since his abduction by the Russians on 28 March 2022.
Russia is also refusing to return the body of 27-year-old Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, whom the Russians seized from occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast in early August 2023. It was only in April 2024 that Russia admitted to holding her. Victoria died in October this year, either in one of the most notorious of Russian SIZOs in Tagenrog, or while being moved from it. She was young and had been in perfectly good health, with this, and Russia’s failure to return her body, making it clear that the Russians need to hide how it was that they killed her. The same is almost certainly true of the two 16-year-olds from occupied Berdiansk, Tihran Ohannisian and Mykyta Khanharov who were killed in June 2023.
