Enforced disappearances
In the summer of 2022, while Kherson was still under occupation, Russians abducted nine civilians—Serhii Ofitserov, Oleh Bohdanov, Yurii Tavozhnianskyi, Serhii Kabakov, Serhii Kovalskyi, Kostiantyn Reznik, Serhii Heidt, Yurii Kaiov, and Denys Lialka. They were accused of “preparing and committing an act of international terrorism.” Initially, the occupiers transferred the men to Simferopol, then to the Lefortovo detention center in Moscow. They are currently being held in Rostov.
18 March 2025
Roman Ishchenko was abducted from his own home on April 19, 2022. For three years, he has remained incommunicado. The Russians have not filed any charges against him and refuse to disclose where he is being held.
12 March 2025
The case of Bohdan Kovalchuk stands apart from the stories of other Ukrainians imprisoned by Russia in […]
4 March 2025
"Everything is very difficult, but I’m holding on and keeping my chin up. Hugs to all of you. I believe that we will see each other again. As Schopenhauer said 300 years ago, everything will happen one way or another", wrote Oleksandr Borysov, a resident of Luhansk, in his first letter to his family after being conveyed to prison. December 24, 2024. Yakutsk, Russia. Borysov is one of several dozen civilians who were seized in the occupied part of Luhansk region before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and have remained imprisoned ever since. At the end of 2024, Russian authorities began transferring them to Russia. Oleksandr was among the first to be transferred.
20 February 2025
In mid-2017, a wave of arrests of “Ukrainian spies” and “terrorists” began in the occupied part of the Donetsk region—allegedly due to a leak of information about them by an SSU officer who sided with Russia. Numerous arrests followed throughout the rest of 2017 and all of 2018, with some additional detentions taking place in 2019.
21 January 2025
Serhii Diedovskyi from the Chernihiv region, Andrii Pashchenko, and Serhii Shevtsov from the Kyiv region were civilians abducted and taken to Russia in 2022. They did not return alive. Their identities were confirmed through DNA testing.
7 January 2025
The 37-year-old Nataliia Vlasova and 46-year-old Viktor Shydlovskyi were detained by representatives of the pro-Russian quasi-structures of the so-called DPR on March 21, 2019, while crossing the Olenivka checkpoint. Both were traveling to the occupied Donetsk, allegedly using forged documents under the surname Petrenko. In Donetsk, their acquaintance, 47-year-old Serhii Hruzynov, was already waiting for them. During the court hearing, all three stated that they had incriminated themselves under torture, confessing to crimes they had not committed.
30 December 2024
Ukraine lost control over Kherson in the early days of the full-scale invasion. The city and almost […]
24 December 2024
—Two jeeps arrived from Bobrovytsia and fired from a machine gun. They could have driven quietly through […]
12 December 2024
Since its founding, the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR) has been documenting cases of civilian abductions in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Russia and its proxies have been committing these crimes since 2014. The number of such cases has skyrocketed during the full-scale invasion.
4 November 2024