Enforced disappearances

In the Luhansk Region, a Village Head, Tortured by Russians, Escaped from the Occupation

Because she was a patriot and refused to collaborate with the Russians, Halyna Hlobchasta, the head of Makiyivka and Hrekivka villages in the Luhansk Region? became a target for the occupiers. She was abducted, detained, and tortured within the walls of the Makiyivka school, where she had worked for many years. Eventually, she escaped from occupation with her husband and now lives in the Ukraine-controlled territory.

27 September 2024

He Was Tortured with Electricity and Faced an Attempted Rape. The Story of a Kherson Resident Who Shared a Cell with Kherson Mayor Kolykhaiev and Almost Committed Suicide in Captivity

Viktor Soldatov, a system administrator at the Kherson Shipyard, spent exactly nine months in Russian captivity. In an interview with MIHR, he shared his experience of the occupiers’ abuse of him, his cellmate Ihor Kolykhaiev, the Mayor of Kherson, his unexpected release, and the health issues he faced after the torture.

27 August 2024

“15 years of imprisonment for him is a death sentence.” Where the Russians are holding and why they are prosecuting Serhiy Kotov, a driving instructor from Oleshky

Driving instructor Serhiy Kotov was one of those taken by the Russian military from his home in Oleshky, on the left bank of Kherson region. For more than two years, the Russians have been holding him captive, and recently "sentenced" him to 15 years in prison, allegedly for espionage.

13 June 2024

Terrorism and attempted arson of a person: what the Russians accuse Kostiantyn Zinovkin from Melitopol of and where he is held

The Russians occupied Melitopol in the first days of the full-scale invasion. They immediately seized the administrative buildings and started dispersing pro-Ukrainian protests with weapons, abducting local residents and holding them hostage. Kostiantyn Zinovkin, who stayed in Melitopol to care for his mother and grandmother, was not spared either.

12 February 2024

The price of freedom: the story of Snovsk mayor’s release from captivity

Oleksandr Medvediov, mayor of Snovsk in Chernihiv Region, was taken hostage in March 2022 when Russian forces invaded the city. Captured by enemy soldiers, he endured several days in handcuffs, subjected to brutal interrogation and physical abuse, including a broken shoulder blade, and faced a ransom demand for his release.

5 January 2024

Attack on a school, abduction, captivity. How residents of Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske in Chernihiv Region survived the occupation

Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske is a residential community near Chernihiv, where about three thousand people lived before the full-scale invasion. It was directly in the path of the Russian army to Chernobyl. The village came under occupation on February 28 and was liberated on April 2. An MIHR fact finder recorded accounts of the ordeal.

29 December 2023

MIHR discovered a torture chamber in Sumy Region: a victim recognized all of it

Boromlia and Trostianets are population centers in the Okhtyrka community of Sumy Region. At the start of the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation, they came under occupation. The invaders kidnapped, tortured, and killed civilians. MIHR came here on a field mission and discovered five sites where Russians illegally detained civilians. In Boromlia, people were held on the premises of a local enterprise, and in Trostianets – at the railway station, brick factory, grain silo, and police department.

27 December 2023

For the first time, the UN illegally has recorded the problem of Ukrainian civilian hostages held by Russia: what will it do?

On 19 December, 2023, the UN General Assembly adopted an updated resolution on the situation of human […]

19 December 2023

How the Russians occupied Chernihiv Region: names of commanders and alleged perpetrators

“We came to liberate you." This is how Russian invaders responded to the residents of Chernihiv Region in February-March 2022. During this time, they committed numerous crimes against civilians. To document these, MIHR went to the village of Shestovytsia, where in March last year Russian troops established their headquarters.

12 December 2023

“Spotter from Chornobaivka”: how Maksym Bilychuk survived kidnapping, seven months of captivity, torture, and at last appeared in the territory controlled by Ukraine

Maksym Bilychuk is a thirty-year-old resident of Chornobaivka, the strategically important village near Kherson, where the airfield is located. He had neither military nor volunteer experience before a full-scale invasion. He spent the first month and a half of the Great War in the basement with his nephew, wife and neighbors.

30 November 2023