A Resident of Melitopol, Kidnapped Together with her Husband by Occupiers, Dies in Russian Captivity

Melitopol is one of the Ukrainian cities that Russia captured in the first days of a full-scale invasion. Russians immediately began breaking into houses, kidnapping and intimidating civilians, and suppressing resistance to the occupiers. Spouses Tetiana Plachkova and Oleh Plachkov were among those who were taken.

Before the full-scale war launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, Tetiana and Oleh had two cafes in Melitopol and were building up their own business. When Russians captured the city, they stayed at home together with Tetiana’s mother. On the night of September 25-26, 2023, occupiers broke into their house.

“People, armed with machine guns and dressed in uniform, broke into our house, handcuffed my parents, took their phones and documents and took them away. They locked my grandmother in her room and ordered her to stay there,” says Liudmyla Melnykova, the Plachkovs’ daughter.

According to her, the kidnappers did not try to conceal that they were FSB officers. Russians illegally searched the house all night and interrogated Tetiana’s mother. They promised to release her relatives after establishing some facts, but she never saw her parents again. Instead, occupiers visited colleagues of the spouses to conduct illegal searches and interrogations and warned that they might have to give evidence against the Plachkovs at the so-called court trial.

Liudmyla Melnykova had not known the whereabouts of her parents for almost six months. Neither an appeal to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies nor inquiries to occupation authorities yielded any results. Suddenly, in February 2024, Liudmyla learned from her own sources that her mother had fallen into a “coma of unknown cause” and was kept in the intensive care unit at the Melitopol hospital. Doctors do not know why Tetiana was in such a state, but they say that Russians did not immediately bring her to the hospital, but first kept her somewhere else. In addition, Tetiana Plachkova caught the flu.

“We do not know where she was held because doctors say that her bedsores are fairly significant. They might have done something to her to remove the bruises,” says Liudmyla.

The so-called investigator did not allow Tetiana’s mother to see her. He did not allow the woman to be transferred to another hospital, since she was suspected of espionage. Moreover, it is known that Russians provided Tetiana Plachkova with a “state-paid lawyer”, Olena Shapovalova from Melitopol, a member of the Zaporizhia Oblast Bar Council before the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion. According to journalists, she, as early as January 2023, went over to the Russian side and headed the occupation bar association of Zaporizhia Oblast. Her license issued in 2004 was revoked by the Ukrainian government in 2024.

Olena Shapovalova, the “state-paid lawyer” appointed by Russians for Tetiana Plachkova. Photo: Facebook

Liudmyla asked the ICRC to monitor how medical care was provided to her mother, but the organization replied that it did not have access to the temporarily occupied territories. She also asked the FSB to allow Tetiana to be transported to a medical facility located within the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government. However, while Liudmyla was waiting for a decision, her mother died on May 23. She was 51 years old.

The death certificate issued by Russians states that Tetiana had pneumonia, pulmonary edema and brain swelling, but does not specify causes of this condition. The occupation prosecutor’s office of Zaporizhia Oblast claims that the woman died in July, not May, so now Liudmyla is filing complaints against occupation authorities. After Tetiana Plachkova’s death, Shapovalova, a lawyer without a license, stopped communicating with her relatives, and “investigators” closed the so-called criminal case of “espionage”. Liudmyla was never able to see her mother and say goodbye to her, because Russians would not have let the woman into the temporarily occupied territory. She buried her deceased mother, who had stayed in Melitopol.

Liudmyla still does not know where Russians keep her father and what condition he is in now. Occupation authorities claim that they are not holding Oleh Plachkov and have no questions for him. Liudmyla learned from other Melitopol residents that her parents had been taken to Rostov, although she has no reliable evidence of this fact. Now she is appealing to Ukrainian and international agencies and organizations to help find her father.

This article was published with the support from the European Endowment for Democracy (EED). Its content does not necessarily reflect the official position of the EED. The views or opinions expressed herein are the sole responsibility of its authors.