You're reading: Famous scientist and volunteer arrested in separatist Donetsk

A wave of arrests started in a separatist stronghold Donetsk last week after someone blew up a local statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in a city center on Jan. 27, damaging its pedestal.

The Russian-backed separatists captured a renowned Ukrainian historian and religious scholar Ihor Kozlovsky in his Donetsk apartment, Tetiana Sosnovska, head of Ukraine’s National Museum of History reported on her Facebook page based on talks to his wife.

Kozlovsky had to stay in Donetsk to care for his bed-ridden son. After breaking into his flat, the combatants took away the papers of apartment ownership and Kozlovsky’s private collection of antiquities, Chetvertaya Vlast (Fourth Power) web-site reported based on talks with his relatives. It added Kozlovsky has been kept in a basement since then. The incident occurred between Jan. 27 and Jan. 28, the reports said.

On Jan. 29 the Donetsk militiamen also arrested an activist Marina Cherenkova, head of a local initiative Responsible Citizens, formed in June 2014 to support the needy people remaining in the embattled city. Enrique Menendez, also a member of the initiative, reported this on his Facebook page saying that Cherenkova was captured by representatives of the so-called MGB, the security forces of the self-proclaimed republic based in Donetsk.

“There are different rumours about her accusations and prospects of her release,” Menendez said. He added his arrest was also possible.

The Responsible Citizens cooperate with the charity foundation of Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man, and other charities helping to residents of Donbas. Earlier in January, the separatists already briefly detained four members of this group when they were unloading the blankets sent by the Doctors Without Borders.

Donetsk journalist Oleksiy Matsuka, who had to leave the city for his pro-Ukrainian position, reported in the interview with Hromadske TV that the separatists also recently raided the Donetsk flats of representatives of Taras Shevchenko’s Prosvita cultural group. He believes the separatists started the purges to prevent the social protests because of the economic hardships of living in rebels-held Donetsk.

Matsuka said the blow up of Lenin’s statue could be done by separatists themselves just to find the reasons to start the raids of the activists still remaining in Donetsk.

The separatists set a curfew from 11 pm by 5 am in the city and promised to completely restore the Lenin’s statue in a week.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]