Mykola Harbar

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.