Roman Zarubaev

Roman Zarubaev

Date of disappearance: October 8, 2022

Place of disappearance: Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region

When the full-scale war began, Roman Zarubaev did not leave Melitopol, he wanted to settle all his affairs. But later he was detained. It happened in the apartment where he was staying with his friend. Roman’s aunt Natalia says that they were being watched, and the owner of the apartment was hostile to them. Zarubaev was careless enough to tell her that he did not plan to go to the pseudo-referendum. In addition, he had a large tattoo of Ukraine’s coat of arms on his wrist. He interrupted him, but someone might have known about it.

On October 8, 2022, Roman and his friend were abducted by Russians and taken to an unknown destination. His family did not know where the man was being held for eight months. Later it turned out that he had been in Melitopol all this time.

“They were held in the basement, abused and tortured. There is a video where they ‘confess’ to crimes. Their legs and arms are behind their backs, but you can see that they were badly beaten,” says Natalia.

Then Roman was transported to the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. He arrived there very tired, thin and hungry. He was tried under five articles, accused of weapons possession and terrorism, in particular, of preparing an explosion near a “polling station” in Melitopol during the pseudo-referendum, and called an “agent of Ukrainian intelligence”. According to recent reports, Roman is still in Rostov.

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