Almost 200 Ukrainian civilians abducted by the Russian invaders in occupied Luhansk oblast alone

The Media Initiative for Human Rights have documented 196 abductions in occupied Luhansk oblast, with this seemingly just in 2024.  The figure is especially shocking given that these are just the cases which the NGO has learned about from freed hostages or other limited sources.  The real number of people abducted and illegally held prisoner is uite possibly much higher.

Citing both its own sources and the Media Initiative for Human Rights [MIHR], Realna Gazeta reports that from time to time the occupation regime intensifies ‘checks’ and pressure on the local population in order to hunt out those viewed as pro-Ukrainian.  MIHL researcher Lidiya Tarash, for example, told the newspaper that from 22 February to 15 December 2024, they had documented 11 enforced disappearances just from occupied Starobilsk, and a further 18 from Starobilsk raion.  They had, in all, recorded 196 cases where civilians had been abducted, including 27 women (20% of the cases known).  Tarash stressed that these are merely the cases that MIHR has been able to document, with the real number unknown.  Many relatives are themselves on occupied territory and do not make the relevant reports to the Ukrainian enforcement bodies.  Human rights organizations learn of those who are illegally imprisoned thanks to fellow prisoners who have been freed.  Sometimes reports appear in the Russian or occupation media, however these often omit names, blur faces, etc.  

The same problems have, in fact, existed since Russia seized effective, if not admitted, control of parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts in 2014.  The enforced disappearances began immediately, with relatives often fearing that publicity could hurt the person, or hoping, sometimes with cause, that the militants would release the person for a ransom.  Due to such evident corruption and lawlessness, there were cases where the reason why a person had been abducted seemed strictly mercenary – one of the militants had taken a fancy to their car, or, as in the case of Roman Sahaidak, because of a business conflict with a person close to one of the Russian-controlled militants.

The Russian invaders began abducting civilians as soon as they seized any territory from February 2022.  Although some had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong times, others were evidently targeted because they had earlier served in Ukraine’s Armed Forces, especially in the Aidar Battalion or for their known pro-Ukrainian position.  Many were accused of having directed fire for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, or of ‘spying’. As Tarash pointed out, the pretext for such accusations is very often simply a photograph of Russian technology, or similar, a comment on social media or in correspondence with relatives about the situation.

Some of those abducted have already been ‘tried and sentenced’ by the illegal occupation ‘Luhansk people’s republic’s high court or in Rostov (Russia).  In September 2024, for example, Oleksandr Sokolov and Viktor Soldatko were sentenced to 16 and 13 years, respectively.  Both Ukrainians living in Ukraine were illegally charged under Article 276 (‘spying’) of the aggressor state’s criminal code, while Sokolov was additionally charged with making ‘public calls to extremism’, under Article 280 § 2. It is near certain that the men’s alleged ‘confessions’ were extracted through torture, and there are no grounds for believing that their right to a fair trial, or even to an independent lawyer, was respected.

Ivan Semykoz, who is just 19 and from Luhansk oblast, is imprisoned and about to go ‘trial’ at Russia’s notorious Southern District Military Court.  The occupying state is illegally using its legislation on so-called ‘financing of terrorist activities’ against the young Ukrainian over a single donation he made to the Ukrainian Armed Forces ‘Azov Regiment’ and faces a sentence of up to 15 years’ imprisonment.  

70-year-old Petro Tsarevsky was abducted by armed Russians from his home in a village on the outskirts of Starobilsk on 13 March 2022.  The pretext was his involvement in a self-defence formation which later became a part of the Aidar Volunteer Battalion (which was later merged into Ukraine’s Armed Forces.  The Starobilsk Self Defence Unit helped prevent the Russians and their local supporters from seizing Starobilsk in 2014.  Despite the extraordinary cynicism of charging the 70-year-old with having defended his own country, and Tsarevsky’s serious health issues, including a blood circulation disorder, diabetes and heart problems, he was sentenced in June 2024 to five and a half years’ imprisonment.

Realna Gazeta has also learned that Oleksandr Lysytsky was abducted two months ago from his home in the Starobilsk region, with his family having heard nothing since he was taken awy by armed Russians with a bag over his head.