Volodymyr Androsovych

Volodymyr Androsovych

Date of disappearance: 12 April 2022

Place of disappearance: Mariupol, Donetsk region

Volodymyr Androsovych from the village of Ulianivka, Mykolaiv region, turned 62 in Russian captivity. The man worked as a school bus driver. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he received a call from the school principal asking him to take refugees out of the town of Bashtanka. When Volodymyr arrived, he received a new assignment – to transport mobilized soldiers to Mariupol, which was already being fiercely fought over.

After he got to the city, the Russians closed the ring. He could not get out of the encirclement. Together with other drivers, he was waiting for a humanitarian corridor. According to his daughter Lyudmyla, her father wanted not only to leave himself, but also to take civilians who remained in Mariupol under Russian shelling in the bus.

The drivers found shelter at the Ilyich plant, which was also under fire from the Russians. Volodymyr tried to keep in touch with his family. His daughter Liudmyla says that on April 4, 2022, he called his father for the last time.

The family learned from propaganda videos that Volodymyr Androsovych had been captured. In mid-April, an interview was broadcast on Russian television: Androsovych and several drivers talk about how they ended up in Mariupol. Liudmyla has seen other propaganda videos with her father. “In the last one, where he is filmed, it is very painful to look at him – he has lost a lot of weight. Before these events, he weighed 90 kilograms,” says the daughter.

During his captivity, the family did not receive a single call or letter from Volodymyr. They only know that in the spring of 2022 he was in Olenivka, Donetsk region, and in May of that year, he was taken to an unknown destination.