On April 12, 2022, Russian forces surrounded the Illich Steel Works. ‘We went out. It was nighttime, but I could see the destroyed buildings around us. They put my mom and me into a Russian KAMAZ truck. I was very scared. But I thought they would let us go because we were civilians,’ Sasha told DW journalists last year. The family was taken to a filtration camp in the village of Bezimenne. Snizhana was taken away for interrogation. Since then, the boy has not seen his mother. Sasha himself was taken to a hospital in Donetsk, from where he miraculously managed to call his grandmother in Chernihiv. In May, she traveled to occupied Donetsk region to get her grandson and brought him home. The search for Snizhana has not stopped.
The APUS Project Team and People1st campaign would like to draw your attention to the issue of Ukrainian civilians illegally detained by the Russian Federation:
“According to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, around 16,000 people are considered missing and are held unlawfully in Russia. As confirmed by UN agencies and human rights organizations, these people are systematically subjected to torture and other forms of cruel and inhuman treatment.
Please watch the two-minute animation about Ukrainian citizen Snezhana Kozlova, who in April 2022 was separated from her twelve-year-old son at a Russian “filtration” checkpoint while leaving Mariupol. Her fate has remained unknown ever since. We kindly ask you to sign the petition, help spread the video, and support the People1st campaign’s demands to release all civilians detained as a result of Russia’s invasion.”
Link to petition
Link to animation
