Pavlo Zaporozhets

Date of disappearance: May 9, 2022

Place of disappearance: Kherson, Kherson region

Pavlo Zaporozhets, a 30-year-old lawyer from Kherson, was detained by the Russian military on May 9, 2022, in Kherson. Before that, he had lived in the occupied city for almost three months - on February 24, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The man has experience of serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine after 2014. He retired and most recently worked in the state tax service. After the occupation of the Kherson region, Russians began to organize raids and searches in the city: they were looking for those with military experience. Former soldiers and their families were considered potentially dangerous to Russia and capable of resisting. After his abduction, Pavlo was held in a temporary detention center in Kherson for four months, then transferred to SIZO 1 in Simferopol.

The man's house was searched, and equipment was seized. In October 2022, Zaporozhets and other civilian detainees were transferred to SIZO 2. Pavlo's sister, Maryna, says that he was beaten in Crimea, and in February 2023, he was transferred to Rostov-on-Don in the Russian Federation. There, a trial began — Zaporozhets was accused of violating Article 361 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for "intent to commit a terrorist act" in Kherson. Pavlo's family has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights against his illegal detention and hopes for publicity and a response from international organizations.

Mykola Harbar

Date of disappearance: August 17, 2022

Place of disappearance: Novokaira village, Kherson region

For almost two years, the fate of a 55-year-old mechanic from the village of Novokaira in the Beryslav community of Kherson region has remained unknown. On August 16, 2022, Mykola Harbar stopped contacting his wife, who left the occupied village at the beginning of the Russian invasion. Later, a neighbor of the couple said that she saw Mykola abducted by the Russian army on August 17.

"A Russian military vehicle, their Tiger, drove up to the house," Tetiana Harbar recounts the neighbor's words, "There were four men there. They went into the yard and the house but did not come out long. And then Mykola opened the gate, drove his car out, winked at his neighbor, saying, "You see, they are taking us away," got behind the wheel, a Russian soldier with a weapon got in next to him, and they left the village.

The neighbor who saw Mykola Harbar's abduction had a spare key to his house, so she went to check it out. The house was not locked. Inside, she saw an open safe and the owner's empty wallet. Mykola's passport and military ID were missing.

Relatives and friends of Mykola Harbar tried to find the man in Nova Kakhovka, Chaplynka, and other places where Russia holds Ukrainians. A few days after Mykola's abduction, the Harbar family's godmother even went to the machine factory in Beryslav, where Russians were torturing civilians at the time. But she could not find any information about her husband's fate.

Vitaliy Kuznetsov

Date of disappearance: April 12, 2022

Place of disappearance: Mariupol, Donetsk region

Vitaliy Kuznetsov is a resident of the village of Pryshyb, Bashtanka district, Mykolaiv region. He worked as a school bus driver. On February 26, 2022, along with other drivers from the Mykolaiv region, he was tasked with transporting mobilized soldiers to the Donetsk region. In a convoy of four buses, Kuznetsov arrived in Mariupol but could not leave because Russian troops surrounded him. Enemy troops were continuously shelling Mariupol with artillery and aircraft. Civilian drivers were forced to hide from the shelling on the territory of the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works. As long as he had the opportunity, Vitaliy Kuznetsov contacted his family and told them what was happening to them.

"They were hiding in the hangars where their buses were parked. His bus was damaged when a shell hit the hangar. After March 16, 2022, Vitaliy said that it became worse. It was impossible even to go out to get water. They were being shelled with various types of weapons," says Margarita, Vitaliy's sister.

The drivers had no food or water supplies. The last time he got in touch was on April 4, 2022. On April 18, his family saw a video on social media that drivers from Mykolaiv region had been captured by Russians along with the military. It turned out that Vitaliy Kuznetsov was captured on April 12, and Russian troops held him first in the Olenivska colony, then transferred him to the pre-trial detention center in Ryazhsk. Ryazhsk in the Ryazan region. His last known place of detention is a prison in Mordovia. His parents and sister are waiting for him in Ukraine.

Valerii Sterzhantov

Date of disappearance: September 21, 2023

Place of disappearance: Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region

Valerii Sterzhantov is a resident of the village of Sosnivka in the Melitopol region. He was an entrepreneur engaged in agricultural business. 

After the Russian army occupied the village, Valerii took his family to government-controlled territory. He returned home alone because he had to care for his elderly father. 

On September 19, 2023, at 3 a.m., Russian soldiers broke into the house of 49-year-old Valerii. They searched the house and took his phone, documents and money. Valerii was taken with a bag over his head to an unknown location, where he was tortured with electric shocks in the basement until morning. Then they took him to the forest and left him there. 

He came home on his own. On September 21, the security forces called Valerii's friend and suggested that Valerii come to the Refma plant in Melitopol to hand over his documents and phone. On the same day, Valerii went to the appointed place. He never returned home. 

Later, his family learned that Russian security forces had captured Valerii Sterzhantov and accused him of espionage. His whereabouts are unknown. 

This publication was compiled with the support of the International RenaissanceFoundation. It’s content is the exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the International Renaissance Foundation.

Dmytro Bohayevskyi

Date of disappearance: March 17, 2022

Place of disappearance: Hlibivka, Kyiv region

Dmytro Bohaievskyi is an entrepreneur from Hlibivka, in the Kyiv region. When the full-scale invasion of Russia began, he stayed at home and looked after the local cottage community. On March 16, the occupiers illegally searched these houses, and on March 17, Dmytro was abducted allegedly for "opposing the special military operation (SVO)". Along with him, the Russians also took Oleksandr Chyrkov, who lived nearby. For several days, Tetiana and Ihor Bohaievskyi tried to find out from the Russians where their son was and to at least send him warm socks and medicine, as Dmytro suffers from allergies and asthma. However, the occupiers did not disclose his whereabouts, and during the de-occupation, they fled, taking with them the Ukrainians they had illegally detained. Ihor and Tetiana searched for their son in all the surrounding villages and towns but to no avail. They only found other prisoners whom the occupiers had abandoned in basements, but there was no news about Dmytro. Only later did freed civilians and military personnel tell Bohaievskyi's parents that the Russians had first held him illegally in a Bryansk detention center and then transferred him to Tula. There, the Russians feed Ukrainians terribly, force them to sing the Russian anthem, and even stage mock executions. Due to the poor conditions, Dmytro lost a significant amount of weight. "I would never have thought he had been so full-figured," one of the freed prisoners told Tetiana Bohaievska.

This publication was compiled with the support of the International RenaissanceFoundation. It’s content is the exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the International Renaissance Foundation.

Volodymyr Mykolayenko

Date of abduction: April 18, 2022

Place of abduction: Kherson

Volodymyr Mykolaienko was the mayor of Kherson, a regional center in southern Ukraine, from 2014 to 2020. Mykolaienko, 62, did not leave his hometown when the occupation began. The Russians repeatedly tried to force him to cooperate, but he resolutely refused. On April 18, Volodymyr disappeared, leaving his home and never returning.

The former mayor of Kherson became one of dozens of local residents abducted in the spring of 2022. Most were involved in the city's defense or those who openly supported Ukraine despite the occupation. Soon after, the Russians released a propaganda video with Mykolayenko, but even in captivity, the man behaved with dignity and did not abandon his pro-Ukrainian position. In early May, the occupiers came to search Mykolayenko's and his daughter's apartments. That was the last time his wife Maryna saw Volodymyr. "Two cars with the letters 'Z' arrived. There were military men in one and men in black uniforms in the other. I think they were FSB officers. My husband was in the car with them. When he got out, I told him: "Tell me everything." He said, "Tell everyone that I love you very much," Maryna recalls. According to the woman, the search itself turned into a regular robbery. The Russians took everything they saw: routers, perfume, alcohol, mushrooms, and coffee.

The former mayor was initially held in the Kherson police station, where he was brutally tortured. Later, the man was transported to the occupied Crimea. And after a while — to the territory of the Russian Federation.

Date of abduction: May 12, 2023

Place of abduction: Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region

Ihor Palamarchuk

Date of disappearance: August 16, 2022

Place of disappearance: Bilozerka village, Kherson region

Ihor Palamarchuk is an entrepreneur from the village of Bilozerka in Kherson region. After the occupation, he decided to evacuate his wife while he remained at home. The man was first detained in June 2022. "The Russian military set up a torture chamber in the local prosecutor's office, and that's where Ihor was taken. They beat the man, took him to the field four times and simulated an execution. At the time of his detention, he was 52 years old and looked his age, and when he was released ten days later, he looked like an old man," says Liubov, Ihor's wife. Palamarchuk told her that civilians were tortured with electric shocks, and he constantly heard screams in the room. They hardly fed them: instead of food, they threw bread on the floor. Palamarchuk was abducted for the second time on August 16, 2022. For a long time, his fate was unknown. After the village was liberated in the fall of 2022, his family tried to find out where he had disappeared to, but no one knew anything. One day, in a Russian media story about captured Ukrainians, Liubov Palamarchuk saw a gaunt man who looked like Ihor. The HRMMU found a prisoner of war released as a result of the exchange, who confirmed that he had seen Ihor Palamarchuk in one of the detention centers in the Russian Federation. There are prisoners of war and civilian Ukrainians held there. The conditions of detention are terrible: prisoners are often beaten and not provided with medical care. For a year, Igor Palamarchuk's family has not received official confirmation of where and why he is being held by Russia.

Oleksii Kyrychenko

Date of abduction: August 23, 2023

Place of abduction: Mykhailivka village, Zaporizhzhia region

Oleksii Kyrychenko is a police officer from Mykhailivka, Zaporizhzhia region. When the Russians occupied the village, he refused to cooperate with them. On August 23, 2023, the invaders illegally searched Oleksiy's apartment and abducted him. In December of the same year, Kyrychenko and several other civilian hostages were "tried" by Russians for the murder of Ivan Sushko, who had defected to Russia and declared himself the head of Mykhailivka. On December 1, 2023, Kyrychenko was detained in Pryazovske, Zaporizhzhia region, and a few weeks later was transferred to SIZO No. 2 in Simferopol, and from there returned to Pryazovske. The Russians twice "tried" Kirichenko for "committing a terrorist attack by prior conspiracy." However, his family notes that he never had close contact with the other defendants in the "proceedings." According to his family, Kirichenko has lost a lot of weight and is in a complex psychological state. Also, the Russians do not pass him all the letters from his family. Now, the family is looking for a good lawyer for Oleksii, but defense lawyers do not take on this case because of its high profile.

Serhii Khrypun

Date of abduction: March 24, 2022

Place of abduction: Nove village, Zaporizhzhia region

Serhii Khrypun is a resident of Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region. Before the full-scale war, the man worked as a security guard at an agricultural company in the village of Nove, a half-hour drive from his home. On February 22, 2022, Serhii went there for a week-long shift, but the village was under occupation two days later. Russian troops entered the agricultural company where Khrypun worked and set up a headquarters, a field kitchen, and a hospital. In addition, the company hid broken equipment.

Serhii wanted to leave for Ukraine's territory, but he had no documents. The Russians would not let him through without a passport, so Khrypun and his two colleagues stayed at the company.

The man was constantly in touch with his family, calling them. On March 24, his daughter Yulia received news from her father. He said the enemy soldiers had left but called again a few hours later. He said that two Russian KAMAZ trucks had arrived at his workplace and suggested that the Russian military wanted to take away supplies and equipment.

After that, the connection with Serhiy Khripun disappeared. For two days, his family tried to find out what happened to him. Finally, the company's management reported that the occupiers had captured Khrypun and two other workers. CCTV cameras recorded the military searching the company's territory, putting the three men face down on the ground, and then putting them in cars and taking them to an unknown destination.

Yulia only knows what happened next from the stories of other Ukrainian prisoners who managed to return home. According to them, the Russians first held the prisoners in Tokmak and then in Melitopol. There, according to the released prisoners, the conditions were terrible. The prisoners were beaten and starved. Then, they were transferred to a colony in Olenivka, Donetsk region, and from there, they were taken to Kursk, Russia.

As Yulia found out, her father was tortured, and his ribs were broken. He was not provided with medical care.

Vitalii Profatylov

Date of disappearance: April 12, 2022

Place of disappearance: Mariupol, Donetsk region

Vitalii Profatylov, 55, worked as a school bus driver in Novyi Buh in Mykolaiv Oblast, in southern Ukraine. After the Russian invasion began, Vitalii became one of the drivers who agreed to transport mobilized soldiers as Russia invaded Ukraine and began to occupy the territory. At first, the man was told that he would deliver the soldiers to Mykolaiv. But it was impossible to get to the city because of the fighting, so the buses were sent to Mariupol, a city on the Azov Sea, now controlled by Russia. The civilian drivers immediately found themselves surrounded by Russians: they could not get out of the city.

According to Vitalii's wife, Olha Profatylova, the four drivers hid from Russian bombardment at the Ilyich Plant. Despite the shelling, Vitalii tried to call his family from the blockaded city. Profatilov lost contact on April 4, 2022. Two weeks later, his wife found a video with Vitalii — he was among the prisoners of the Olenivska colony in Donetsk Oblast. "Thousands of them were in the colony yard, and I saw my husband in the front row. I recognized him by his clothes. He had changed a lot. Not all relatives recognized him," Olha recalls. Olenivka became one of the places where many Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians were held. From there, most were transported to the Russian Federation.

According to unofficial information, Vitalii was also taken to Russia, allegedly in Kursk colony No. 1. his family recently received information that Profatilov and other drivers may be held in Mordovia.

Even before the full-scale invasion, Vitalii had significant problems with his liver and heart. The man suffered a heart attack. In addition, he has gouty feet, Meniere's disease, and is deaf in one ear. He used to undergo special treatment every month. His family does not know what Vitaliy's condition is now and whether he receives any help in Russian prisons.

Dmytro Khyliuk

Date of disappearance: March 3, 2022

Place of disappearance: Kozarovychi village, Kyiv region

In March of last year, Dmytro Khyliuk, a journalist with one of Ukraine's largest news agencies, UNIAN, was abducted by the Russian military near his home in the village of Kozarovychi near Kyiv. After the full-scale invasion began, Dmytro could not leave for a safer place because he was taking care of his elderly parents. On March 1, 2022, the village came under occupation, and leaving was impossible. Almost immediately, the Russians searched the journalist's home, and then a shell hit his house, partially destroying it. So the family moved in with neighbors. On March 3, Dmytro and his father decided to inspect their house again to assess the damage. However, they did not get there: Russian soldiers attacked them right in the street. Dmytro's father, Vasyl Khyliuk, recalls the events: "They started shouting: "Hands up! Lie down!" They put us on the ground, searched us, even took off our boots, shot Dima under the ear, and then picked us up, put our jackets over our heads, and led us away."

Both men were detained in the Kyiv region and transferred from place to place several times. Finally, on March 11, Vasyl Khyliuk was released, and Dmytro was taken to Russia. As the international organization Reporters Without Borders journalists found out in their investigation, the journalist was first held in SIZO No. 2 in the city of Novozybkov, Bryansk region. According to a former prisoner interviewed by Reporters, special forces in the detention center regularly interrogated the journalist about his activities, accusing him of "Ukrainian propaganda and work against Russia." Dmytro Khilyuk was also beaten several times.

At the end of February 2023, a source in this pre-trial detention center, who has access to all the cells in the old building, told Reporters that Khilyuk had not been in this part of the prison since the beginning of 2023. It is unknown whether the journalist was transferred to another detention center or removed from the facility. After Dmytro's arrest, his parents received the only news from him - a letter dated April 14, 2022, in which their son wrote that he was alive and well. These few words, written in the spring, reached his parents only in September last year.

Bohdan Shcherba

Date of disappearance:  February 26, 2022

Place of disappearance: Lubianka village, Kyiv region

Bohdan Shcherba, a mechanical fitter who worked at a brick factory in the village of Lubianka, Kyiv region, was abducted by Russians on February 26, 2022. It was the third day of the full-scale invasion, and Russian troops were moving in on the capital and firing heavily all around. Bohdan, along with his wife, children, her brother, and a friend's family, were setting up a basement for the night. In the afternoon, the husband, a family friend, and his wife's brother drove toward the village of Ozero to pick up a relative but never got in touch again. 

— “A few hours later, my father decided to go the same way, but on a bicycle,” says Olha, Bohdan's wife, “but Russian soldiers blocked one of the streets and did not let my father go. I learned from the released hostages that Bohdan's car was stopped and searched. In the glove compartment, the Russians noticed a radio that the brick factory workers where Bohdan and my brother worked used to communicate. The men were abducted.

From her sources, Olha learned that all three were held in the cold storage rooms of the Gostomel airport. There, the men were interrogated and filmed for propaganda channels, where they were presented as “hungry Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered to the Russians.” On March 7, 2022, they were taken from the airport, and on March 13, they were taken to a tent city near the city of Kursk, after which they were transferred to SIZO No. 1 in the same city. All three were held in different cells. After some time, their relatives learned that the boys had been transferred to a penal colony in the village of Malaya Loknya, Kursk region. In November 2022, Olha read in one of the telegram channels that searched for people that her husband was being held in the Taganrog detention center. In the summer of 2023 and winter of 2024, she received information that Bohdan had been transferred to the Kursk detention center again. Currently, the exact place of detention and the state of health of her husband, who has been held in captivity for more than three years, remains unknown.

Mykyta Buzinov

Date of disappearance: March 4, 2022

Place of disappearance: Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske village, Chernihiv region

Leaving the large city of Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine, close to the border with Belarus, for a small village last February, 25-year-old Mykyta Buzinov thought he would be safe. The day before, Russia had invaded Ukraine and occupied the territory. For the first few days, he and his family stayed in the quiet village of Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske, 20 kilometers from the city. But the peace did not last long. The Russians got there too, occupying the village. When the Ukrainian military destroyed several enemy columns, the occupiers began abducting civilians, looking for those who could communicate with the Ukrainian military.

Mykyta worked as an ordinary driver and had nothing to do with the army. So he didn't think his family could be of interest to the Russian army. But on March 4, enemy soldiers came to the Buzinovs' house.

The whole family was home: mother, uncle, brother, and Mykyta's fiancée Kateryna. People were taken outside, and their phones were taken away. And then the horror began. Mykyta was stripped naked to check for tattoos and weapon marks on his body. The Russians pointed machine guns at the boy and his brother. The military shouted that they had found maps in his brother's phone. And they accused Mykyta himself of allegedly transmitting some data. To intimidate people, the Russians even imitated an execution: they took Mykyta behind a barn and started shooting. The boy's mother went through hell because she did not know if her child was alive.

Later, his fiancée Kateryna was forced to kneel next to Mykyta. They also pointed a gun at the girl. They put psychological pressure on her and threatened to kill her beloved right before Kateryna.

Finally, the military left, but took Mykyta with them. The family had no idea where to look for him. She hoped that the boy would return the next day, but time passed, and there was no news of her son and her beloved.

After the village was liberated, the Buzinov family learned that a local resident, whom the Russians had also abducted on March 4, was found tortured: after days of beatings, he had been shot in the head. Everyone was afraid that Nikita would not suffer the same fate. His mother took DNA samples. Months passed, but the family received no matches. The boy was not among the dead.

Finally, nine months after his abduction, he received news that he might be held in the Russian city of Belgorod. A lawyer hired by his relatives went to the city, but received a reply saying that there was no Nikita Buzinov in the Belgorod detention center. Later, another message came: a man with that name had been "released" from the local prison.

So the family hopes the guy is still alive and in Russian custody. And one day, he will return home.

Andrii Harasymenko

Date of disappearance: March 25, 2022

Place of disappearance: Novoukrainske village, Chernihiv region

Before Russia's full-scale invasion, Andrii Harasymenko lived with his wife Nataliia in the village of Novoukrainske in Chernihiv Oblast, a region in northern Ukraine that borders Russia. The couple had two daughters. Andriy worked as a gas service foreman, had a household and cattle.

On February 24, a column of Russian tanks drove through Novoukrainske, and the fighting for Chernihiv began, with shells constantly exploding nearby. In March, the family spent most of the time in the cellar, hiding from shelling.

On March 25, men in uniform and with machine guns broke into the Garasymenko's home. Natalia's wife recalls that there were so many Russian soldiers that it looked like they had come to detain a known terrorist. The woman noticed people in specific uniforms, almost all of whom had balaclavas on their faces. "It was probably either the military police or the FSB," Natalia believes. The family was interrogated for about an hour. At the same time, the Russians searched the house: they took documents, cell phones, a tablet, a computer system unit, flash drives, flashlights, and a Wi-Fi router.

After the search, they packed up and left. They took Garasymenko with them in the APC. Natalia decided that Andriy was taken to the village of Vyshneve near Novoukrainske. She went there twice to try to find out about her husband's fate. During the second trip, on March 28, a Russian soldier told her that the prisoners had been taken in an unknown direction.

For almost two months there was no news about the fate of the kidnapped man. The family did not know if he was alive. Natalia was shown photos of civilians tortured by the Russians and found in Vyshneve for identification. Her husband was not among those killed.

Eventually, he was found in Russia. A witness who returned home on an exchange said that he saw Garasymenko in the Kursk detention center. "He didn't tell me everything, but I realized that Andriy had been badly beaten. He asked me to tell him that he was there. It was May 22, 2022," Natalia recalls.

The next news the family received was in late December 2022. At that time, a man came out for an exchange and said that he had seen Garasymenko in the Tula Correctional Colony No. 1 in the city of Donskoy. In the summer of 2023, new information emerged from relatives of other prisoners: Andriy was transferred to the Polyana colony in the Republic of Mordovia.

Garasymenko has kidney disease and was scheduled to undergo kidney stone removal surgery at the end of February 2022. But due to the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he was unable to get to the hospital in Chernihiv. The family does not know whether the man is receiving any treatment in Russian prisons.

Ivan Honchar

Date of disappearance: April 9, 2022

Place of disappearance: border with Russia near Novoazovsk, Donetsk region

The beginning of the Russian invasion was witnessed by 24-year-old Ivan Honchar in Mariupol, a city on the coast of the Azov Sea. He had a successful business there: he owned a branded clothing and footwear store.

From the first days of the full-scale war, Russia began shelling Mariupol, and Ivan, along with his girlfriend and mother, hid in a private house. Soon a Russian missile hit the house, and he and his family miraculously survived. They moved to a large bomb shelter near the Azovstal stadium. About 150 townspeople were hiding there. However, on April 5, 2022, the bomb shelter also failed: after the hit, a fire broke out and the room was filled with smoke. Civilians were forced to go outside in the middle of the night, while the occupiers kept pouring fire on the city.

Ivan and his family sought shelter on the seashore. There, the Russian military directed them toward the border. According to Ivan's brother Ilya, Chechens started harassing him on the way, accusing him of belonging to the Ukrainian military. "He grew a beard and had an athletic appearance, although he had never served anywhere," says Ilya.

On April 9, Ivan, his mother and girlfriend decided to cross the Russian border, intending to reach Ukraine via Russia, Georgia and Europe. But at the border, Ivan disappeared. Separately from other family members, he was summoned to one of the offices. That was the last time his family saw him.

For many months, there was no news about him. Only in the fall of 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that Ivan Honchar had been detained for opposing the so-called special military operation. In February 2023, a prisoner released from captivity reported that Ivan was held in Taganrog, Russia, and then transferred to the city of Kamensk-Shakhtynsky. According to a former prisoner with whom Illya spoke, prisoners there are subjected to psychological and physical violence. In particular, in Kamensk-Shakhtynsk, dogs are set on them, stones are thrown at them, and they are beaten with a stun gun.

Serhii Sytnyk

Date of disappearance: March 16, 2022

Place of disappearance: Trostianets, Sumy region

At the time of his abduction by the Russian military, who had occupied the town of Trostyanets in Ukraine the day before, Ukrainian Serhii Sytnyk was 32 years old. No one knows for sure why he was captured. Perhaps because he was a hunter. The next day after his abduction, the Russians came to his home. They turned the house upside down and took everything in sight, including food and warm socks. Serhiy's mother witnessed the search. She learned from conversations with the Russian military that her son was alive.

She went to the Trostianets railway station, where the Russians held Ukrainians, to look for Serhii. She walked with her hands up. There were a lot of Russian soldiers around, she says. It was very frightening. However, she did not give up trying to discover her son's fate. Finally, one of the Russians said that Serhii was not at the station and advised her to look for him at the local police station. But there, the woman was also escorted away with nothing.

The family of the abducted man is sure that the Russians took him to the neighboring village of Boromlia because on April 4, 2022, after the de-occupation of the village, they found Serhii's hunting license, bank cards, and work ID. After the Russians fled, his mother and sister were looking for their husband among the tortured people in the village. But Serhii was not among the dead either.

The head of the Boromlyanska community told the women that the Russians took many Ukrainian prisoners. Russians took them through the village of Krasnopillia toward the Russian border. Many of them are still being held in prisons on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Oleksandr Babych

Date of abduction: March 28, 2022

Place of abduction: Hola Prystan, Kherson region

Oleksandr Babych is the mayor of Hola Prystan. Russians abducted him on the morning of March 28, 2022. A week before, he had sent his wife and two daughters away from the occupation, and he flatly refused to leave the community. Since the beginning of the great war, Babych has been organizing food deliveries from neighboring villages and towns, delivering humanitarian aid, and in the evening, together with the concerned residents of Hola Prystan, patrolling the streets against looters. Several times, pro-Ukrainian rallies were held in the city, in which Babych took an active part. In a little over a month of living under occupation, the mayor received several threats against him. The Russians gave him an ultimatum, urging him to cooperate. Eventually, the man was escorted to the city council building, where he had a brief conversation with an FSB representative behind closed doors, after which Babchia was put in a minibus and taken away.

Viktor Maruniak, the head of the village of Stara Zburyivka, who was also abducted by Russians in 2022, speaks about possible reasons for the abduction: "Babych has a patriotic position. I've known him for a long time. He has always been active in Hola Prystan, and he served as a deputy of the Hola Prystan City Council for several conferences. He participated in the 2004 Maidan and in the process of dismantling the Lenin monument. After 2014, he helped the army. Every year, money was allocated from the city budget to support the military. Half a million was planned for 2022."

For more than two years, the mayor of Hola Prystan has been held in Simferopol Detention Center 2 in occupied Crimea. The Russians do not officially confirm his detention, do not press charges, and do not provide him with a lawyer.

Oleksandr Mogolenets

Date of disappearance: March 19, 2022

Place of disappearance: Mezenivka village, Sumy region

Oleksandr Mogolenets spent 15 years in the Border Guard Service and participated in the Anti-Terrorist Operation. His contract expired two months before the Russian invasion, and he resigned from the service. 

Oleksandr lived with his family in the village of Mezenivka, Sumy region. The village is about 6 km from the Russian border. So, the village quickly became occupied when Russia launched a full-scale invasion. After capturing the village, the occupiers ordered all hunters to hand over their hunting weapons. 

On March 19, 2022, on the premises of the local starosta, Oleksandr Moholenets was captured by the Russian military while handing over his hunting weapons. On the same day, he called his wife Kateryna from his phone and said: “I was taken prisoner”. Three days later, several Russian soldiers armed with machine guns searched the house where Oleksandr lived with his family. In April of the same year, Kateryna received a call from an unknown person who said he was sending her greetings from her husband. This was the last news from Oleksandr. 

In May 2022, Russian telegram channels disseminated information about Oleksandr Moholenko's capture. According to the latest data, as of July 2024, the Russian authorities are holding Oleksandr Moholenko in penal colony No. 4 in the city of Alekseevka, Belgorod region.  

Serhii Spartesnyi

Date of Disappearance: July 18, 2023

Place of Disappearance: Enerhodar, Zaporizhzhia Region

Serhii Spartesnyi, an employee of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, remained in his home in Enerhodar after the city fell under Russian occupation. In July 2023, Russian forces stormed his apartment, conducting an illegal search before taking him to the local police station. According to a fellow detainee, the occupiers accused Serhii of distributing pro-Ukrainian leaflets around Enerhodar, spying on the Russian Federal Security Service and a collaborator at the nuclear plant, and training terrorists at the behest of the SSU (Security Service of Ukraine).

Serhii’s wife, Natalia, firmly denies these accusations. She believes her husband was kept in grim conditions, likely in a basement. Through her sources, she learned that the clothes of the captives were covered in mold, they were deprived of fresh air, and they endured torture.

“I know that the Russians put bags over everyone’s heads, bound tape around their necks, and applied electric shocks. I fear they did the same to my husband,”

Despite his existing health problems, Serhii was denied medical care during his detention at the police station. In July 2024, he was formally accused of “espionage” and transferred to a pre-trial detention center in Donetsk, with further interrogations taking place in Melitopol. Natalia later learned that her husband’s physical condition had deteriorated significantly.

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.

Serhiy Leibak

Date of abduction: March 19, 2022

Place of abduction: Kinburn Spit, Mykolaiv region

The Russians took 35-year-old Serhiy Leibak prisoner after they occupied his native Kinburn Spit, a nature reserve in southern Ukraine, following the start of a full-scale invasion. Before the full-scale war, Serhii lived in the village of Pokrovske with his wife, Khrystyna, and two children. He was a nature conservation inspector in the Sviatoslav's White Coast National Park. On March 19, 2022, the Russians came to his house when Serhiy was at work. His wife suggests that the occupiers might have been interested in the pickup trucks their husbands were driving, as the vehicles were suitable for transporting military cargo.

After her husband disappeared, Khrystyna had no information about whether he was alive or where he was. She and her young children had to flee the Russian occupation alone on a tiny boat in a stormy sea.

Every day, Khrystyna looked through hundreds of prisoner photos she found online to see if she could find a familiar face. Only in September 2022 did she find a photo of her abducted husband. "Serhiy looked terrible, had bruises on his face, an injured blue hand, which he used to hold a sign with his name on it," Khrystyna recalls. She found people who had seen Serhiy in the detention center in Crimea. Later, she learned Leibak had been transferred to a pre-trial detention center in Taganrog. Later, a military man released on exchange told Khrystyna that he had been with her husband in a pre-trial detention center in the Russian city of Ryazhsk, Ryazan region, until February 16, 2023. According to the soldier, civilian prisoners are held together with military prisoners. The cells are overcrowded, and the hostages are poorly fed and often tortured. In addition, neither lawyers nor representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross have access to Ukrainian prisoners.

Iryna Horobtsova

Date of disappearance: May 13, 2022

Place of disappearance: Kherson

Iryna Horobtsova, a resident of Kherson, was abducted on her birthday, May 13, 2022. The woman turned 37. Six masked Russian soldiers broke into her apartment and started searching. Iryna's parents were very scared. Her mother was crying, and the occupants locked her in the kitchen. After turning the house upside down, the Russians left, taking Iryna with them.

Before the occupation, Horobtsova led a successful life in Kherson: she worked in an IT company and studied to become a psychologist. She loved to travel, went swimming, and helped people. When the Russians occupied the city, Iryna drove doctors who lived in the suburbs to work and raised money for the local blood transfusion center. She also attended rallies against the occupation and was not afraid to express her pro-Ukrainian position.

Horobtsova was abducted from her parents' apartment, which overlooked Chornobaivka airport. It was at this airport that the Russians deployed their equipment and personnel, and Ukrainian troops repeatedly hit them. After another effective hit, the Russian military began abducting locals, suspecting them of adjusting fire. One of the victims was Iryna Horobtsova. The next day after her abduction, her parents went to the Kherson detention center to give their daughter a change of clothes. But the occupiers did not allow them to give them any clothes or food. The parents tried every day to get a meeting with Iryna, but in vain. After a while, the detention center informed them that Gorobtsova was no longer there. The woman was taken to the temporarily occupied Crimea. Her parents went to look for her in the Simferopol detention center, but no one there wanted to talk to them. The relatives hired a lawyer in Crimea. He found out that Irina had indeed been brought to the Simferopol detention center, where her fingerprints were taken. Now she is allegedly being held in Sevastopol.

Vladislav Popovych

Date of abduction: March 02, 2022

Place of abduction: Bucha, Kyiv region

On March 2, 2022, then 29-year-old Vladyslav Popovych left the town of Bucha in the Kyiv region in the direction of the neighboring village of Myrotske. His father's wife was in the car with him. They were carrying groceries for Vladyslav's grandmother. At the time of the trip, neither Vladyslav nor his stepmother knew that the village was already occupied and that civilian houses had been occupied by Russian soldiers, including snipers who were shooting at cars. At the dam connecting the two parts of the village, one hit Popovych's car. As a result of the hit, he was injured in the leg, and his wife was wounded in the jaw. The stepmother says that she and Vlad ran out of the car but lost each other as they ran in different directions.

Vladislav's mother, Tetyana Popovych, managed to reconstruct the events of the next two days. Residents told her that they saw Vladyslav dirty and bleeding. They helped him wash, bandaged his leg, and gave him crutches. On March 5, he set off in search of an evacuation vehicle that was used to take civilians from the occupation to the territory controlled by Ukraine. No one heard from him after that.

The soldiers who returned from captivity as a result of the exchange said that in the spring of 2022, they heard the name and surname of Vladyslav Popovych in Russia in the Kursk detention center. Subsequently, Tetiana received a short letter from Vladyslav, transmitted through the ICRC channels. It contained only a few words: he is alive and being fed. There was no more information about him.

Oleksandr Yarovyi

Date of abduction: March 2, 2022

Place of abduction: Kozarovychi village, Kyiv region

Columns of Russian troops entered Kozarovychi, Vyshhorod district, on the morning of February 26. When the war broke out, resident Nadiya Yarova was in her house with her husband, Mykola. Her grandson Oleksandr lived nearby and worked in a hardware store in Dymer near Kozarovychi.

"He was supposed to take the goods out of the store, the store owner decided. On that day, March 2, he was supposed to work, but in the evening, he did not answer my call, and on the morning of March 3, there was no contact with him. And in the afternoon. A neighbor said that the work truck was somewhere in the village. I went there. The car was there. The wheels were slashed. And Sasha's house was a mess; it looked like they were searching, but no one was there," says Nadiya, the grandmother of the abducted Oleksandr Yarovyi.

Neighbors say that the Russians came, made the boys kneel, and led them around the yard with their hands up. Oleksandr was among the detainees.

"I did not know where he was for a long time. In mid-March, I was told that a local man had returned from captivity and said that Sasha was being held in Dymer, Kyiv region," says Yarovyi's grandmother. According to her, on March 27, 2022, her grandson was already in the Bryansk detention center, where another hostage had heard about him.

In August 2022, Nadiia Yarova received a letter from her grandson dated April 14. It contained two words: "Alive. Healthy". The International Committee of the Red Cross delivered the letters from the Russian detention center.

Serhii Khrolenko

Date of disappearance: February 26, 2022

Place of disappearance: Dymer village, Kyiv region

On the day of his disappearance, 54-year-old Serhii Khrolenko, a master furniture maker from the village of Dymer, Kyiv region, went to the grocery store.

"It's about 900 meters from home. I went without my phone and passport because I hoped to return quickly. I took an ordinary shopping bag. It was about 3:30 pm. And then, a Russian armored personnel carrier drove up to the store. Tanks were coming. Everyone ran away, but my father decided just to keep walking home. They started calling him, saying, where are you going? He answered that he was going home. They said, "You'll come with us. My father refused. Then the Russians ran up, grabbed him, shoved him into an armored personnel carrier, and drove him away in the direction of the village center," Yana, Serhii's daughter, recounts the words of witnesses. She says that through Dymer, Russian military equipment was moving from Katyuzhanka towards Demydiv.

Back when Dymer was under occupation, Yana tried to find out information about her father from Oleksandr Kharchenko, a local collaborator and Russian protege.

"The traitor confirmed that my father was being held captive on the territory of a foundry in Dymer at 22B Vyshneva Street. He said he was detained because of his allegedly rude behavior to the Russian military. Kharchenko promised that he would be released on March 19. However, this never happened," says Yana.

It is known that before the retreat, the Russians took hostages from the northern regions of Ukraine to Russia through Belarus. However, Yana has no exact information about the place of detention and the condition of her father, although his name has appeared several times in the lists of hostages on search telegram channels.

Yana received a response to her request from the National Information Bureau, which collects information about civilian detainees in Ukraine. The letter stated "(Serhii's) being in captivity," but law enforcement officials did not disclose any other details.

Musayev Ramiz 

Date of abduction: February 26, 2022 

Place of abduction: Ozero village, Kyiv region 

On February 26, 2022, Ramiz Musayev, a 27-year-old brick factory worker from the village of Lubianka, Kyiv region, was supposed to pick up a relative from the neighboring village of Ozeri. Ramiz set off with a family friend and his sister's husband.

— “They went to a neighboring village four kilometers away from home,” says Olha, Ramiz's sister, “but they never got in touch again. “After the de-occupation of Kyiv region, we found out that the boys were stopped by the Russian military, searched their car, and taken to the already seized Gostomel airport.

The cold storage facilities of Gostomel airport are one of the largest places of detention of civilians and prisoners of war in the north of the country. Other hostages of the MHRC have reported that Russians conducted brutal interrogations and beat and abused Ukrainians there. At least one civilian was killed, and his body was hidden on the territory of the airport. Ukrainians were often not given food. There were cases when detainees were given one Russian ration for 30 people. The prisoners were also forced to load the corpses of Russian soldiers.

Then all three were transferred to the Kursk pre-trial detention center and later to a penal colony in the Kursk region. In the summer of 2022, Ramiz's family received a letter from him, from which it became known that the man had been transferred to Crimea, and that he was holding on and sending greetings to his family.

—  “I know from my released husband that Ramiz was taken to Crimea in September 2022,” says Olha, “and in 2023, it became known that he was transferred to a colony in the Tula region again. However, according to the latest information, my brother is being held in a general regime colony in Kamensk-Shakhtynsk, Rostov Oblast.

Witnesses, whom Olga found, said that Ramiz Musayev has lost weight, but he does not lose faith in returning home. He dreams of playing sports and is waiting for his release.

This publication was compiled with the support of the International RenaissanceFoundation. It’s content is the exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the International Renaissance Foundation.

Oleksii Halevych

Date of disappearance: April 2, 2022

Place of disappearance: Donetsk region

Before Russia's full-scale invasion, Oleksii Halevych lived in the Donetsk region with his wife and son. The 36-year-old worked as a railroad cargo guard.

Russia occupied his hometown on February 26, 2022 - two days after it started a full-scale war. Oleksii and his family wanted to leave the occupied territory immediately, but they did not dare to leave because they had no information about safe evacuation routes.

The man had experience of conscript service in the army from 2019 to 2020. After that, he had nothing to do with the military. On April 2, 2022, the Russians began abducting people who had once served. They came to Oleksii as well. They took him to a local school, interrogated him, and then taped his hands, put a bag over his head, and took him to Novoazovsk, another occupied city in the Donetsk region. According to Oleksii's sister Halyna, 50 civilians were abducted in the village.

For about a month, the family knew nothing about Oleksii's fate. Eventually, through relatives of other prisoners, they learned that Halevych could be in colony No. 120 in Olenivka near Donetsk. The prisoner's parents, who also remained in the occupation, went to Olenivka and gave their son parcels. But a week later, they were told that Oleksii had been taken away. As they found out later, he was taken to the Donetsk detention center.

A few months later, Halevych was transferred to the Kalinin colony in Horlivka, Donetsk region. During his time in captivity, his parents received several letters from him. They learned that civilian hostages, including their son, were being held separately from military personnel in Horlivka. Every morning, the prisoners sing the Russian anthem. The colony is in an awful situation with drinking water, which is taken from a pond and causes digestive problems.

Oleksandr Strogan

Date of disappearance: August 11, 2022

Place of disappearance: Kherson

A 49-year-old trucker from Chornobaivka, Kherson Oblast, Oleksandr Strohan was abducted over a year ago, in August 2022. At the time of the full-scale invasion, the man was traveling abroad, but when he learned that Russian troops had invaded Ukraine, he returned home. The occupied Chornobaivka was an important settlement for the Russian army, and the airport was located there. The enemy positions near Chornobaivka were frequently and accurately shelled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, so the occupiers were looking for gunners among local residents, conducting searches and detaining civilians. On August 10, the military came to the house of the Strohans and abducted Olha, the wife of Oleksandr Strohan. The woman was taken to a temporary detention center in Kherson. When Oleksandr found out where Olga was being held, he went to get her, but he was also detained. Olga was released soon after. Since then, she has been looking for her husband. It is known that before retreating from the right bank of the Kherson region in October 2022, the Russian military took some civilians with them. Oleksandr Strogan was among them. His family does not know where he is being held now. The man suffers from epilepsy and needs constant medical supervision.

Mariano Garcia Calatayud

Date of disappearance: March 19, 2022

Place of disappearance: Kherson, Kherson region

Mariano is a Spanish citizen. The man was 74 years old when the Russian military abducted him in the center of occupied Kherson. Prior to the full-scale invasion, the man had been living in Ukraine for several years, doing volunteer work, often traveling to the contact line in the east of the country, bringing humanitarian aid to civilians, and visiting orphanages.

"Mariano has a good heart. When he learned about the war in Ukraine in 2014, about the suffering of civilians, he left everything and came here to help people," says his civilian wife, Tetiana. When Kherson was occupied in 2022, Mariano and other citizens attended pro-Ukrainian rallies, hoping to force the occupiers to leave. On March 19, 2022, Mariano did not return home after one of the rallies. "He managed to call me and tell me that he had come to the gate, but when I went down to open it for him, there was no one at the door," Tetiana adds. The man was detained in Kherson and later transferred to the occupied Crimea to a detention center where Russians also hold hundreds of Ukrainian civilians.

Witnesses who managed to get out of there say that Mariano's health condition deteriorated: his legs swelled, and he suffered a heart attack but did not receive proper medical care. The Russians are not pressing official charges against the Spanish citizen. He is being held incommunicado, not allowed to communicate with his family or have a lawyer. Mariano's wife appealed to the Spanish government, the media, and law enforcement agencies of Ukraine, wrote numerous requests to various institutions in the Russian Federation and occupied Crimea, but has not yet received an official explanation of what Mariano Garcia Calatayud is accused of.

Oleksandr Chyrkov

Date of disappearance: March 17, 2022

Place of disappearance: Hlibivka, Kyiv region

Oleksandr Chyrkov is a funeral home director in Hlibivka, Kyiv region. After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, he and his family found themselves under occupation. On March 16, armed occupiers broke into the Chyrkovs' home and inspected their weapons, and the next day, other Russians illegally searched the house again, took their weapons and a collection of knives, and abducted Oleksandr along with his neighbor Dmytro Bohayevskyi. Later, Oleksandr’s wife, Tetiana, learned that he was first taken to the foundry of the Viknaland plant in Dymer. There, the Russians forced detainees to sign various papers and labeled Dmytro and Oleksandr as a “spotter” and “shooter,” citing Chyrkov's possession of weapons at home.

Subsequently, the occupiers detained Chyrkov in unused refrigeration rooms in Hostomel before transporting him through Belarus to a detention center in Novozybkov, Bryansk region, where a brutal “reception” awaited: the Russians beat Ukrainian detainees with batons. Later, the captors held Oleksandr in a detention center in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol and in a penal settlement in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Rostov region. By at least November 2023, Chyrkov remained in the Kursk detention center. Ukrainians released from these detention centers shared harrowing stories with Oleksandr’s family about appalling food conditions, torture, and ideological pressure.

“In Kursk, they could wake you up in the middle of the night — you’d have to run through corridors carrying your mattress, meaning you constantly had to be ready for anything. In the morning, they forced prisoners to sing the Russian anthem,” Tetiana Chyrkova recounts their words.

Mykola Shcherbyna

Date of disappearance: November 14, 2022

Place of disappearance: Novotroyitske village, Kherson region

Mykola Shcherbyna is a resident of Kherson. Since childhood, he has loved to cook. He studied to become a food salesman and entrepreneur and dreamed of starting his own business. However, the full-scale invasion of Russia prevented him from completing his studies. In early March 2022, Russian troops seized Kherson and almost the entire Kherson region. 

In November 2022, Mykola Shcherbyna went to the village of Novotroitske, where his grandmother lived. A few days later, he was captured by the Russian military and taken to an unknown location. From the correspondence with the occupation authorities, the family knows that the man was taken to the Simferopol detention center in occupied Crimea. This was done by representatives of Russian counterintelligence from the Rapier unit on suspicion of passing coordinates to Russian troops. Later, the released prisoners of war reported that Mykola was being held in the SIZO-2 in Kamyshyn, Volgograd region. Kamyshyn, Volgograd region.

This publication was compiled with the support of the International RenaissanceFoundation. It’s content is the exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the International Renaissance Foundation.

Oleksandr and Iryna Levchenko

Date of abduction: May 6, 2023

Place of abduction: Melitopol

Russians abducted the 62-year-old Iryna and Oleksandr Levchenko in the spring of 2023. At that time, Melitopol, a city in southern Ukraine, had been under occupation for more than a year after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. With the arrival of the Russians, the Levchenko family did not want to leave their home. They were sure the occupiers were not interested in ordinary pensioners, so the Russian military would not touch them.

Iryna used to work as a journalist, but since retiring, she has not been involved in professional activities. According to Iryna Levchenko's sister Olena, the couple disappeared on May 6, when they stopped contacting each other. In addition, a mutual friend saw Irina on that day surrounded by Russian soldiers on the street.

So the sister assumes that the occupiers did not like the Levchenkos and captured them in the middle of the city. What happened next to the couple is almost unknown. According to Olena's testimony, Oleksandr was able to send a note from his place of detention in Melitopol. He wrote that he was living in inhumane conditions, sleeping on a concrete floor, with almost no food. After that, an acquaintance brought food and clothes for Oleksandr, but the Russians did not want to accept the parcel.

The Levchenkos' friends also tried to find out more about their fate in the occupation of "law enforcement agencies." Still, they said that the information would be provided only to family members. But all their relatives, including their sister Olena, left Melitopol occupied. So now the relatives have very rough information about the abductees. It is known that Oleksandr is allegedly still being held in Melitopol and accused of "terrorism." It is currently unknown where his wife, Iryna is being held.