AutoMaidan, which organized automobile protests during the EuroMaidan Revolution, said on March 10 that two of its activists – Oleksandra Ryazhtseva and Kateryna Butko – were kidnapped by pro-Russian forces at the Perekopsk Checkpoint in Crimea on March 9.
Tyzhden.ua journalist Olena Maksymenko also reportedly
went missing after Butko and Ryazhtseva, but Tyzhden.ua officials could not be
reached for comment immediately. An AutoMaidan representative said the group
doesn’t know much about Maksymenko’s case.
“We can only assume that she was captured after
AutoMaidan activists and actually managed to pass the information about Butko
and Ryazhtseva kidnapping to her editors, as Tyzhden.ua was one of the first
publications to print the information as well,” AutoMaidan activist Illiya Dashivets
said.
Ryazhtseva and Butko, the two AutoMaidan activists, were
traveling in a white Citroen car. Butko worked as a press secretary for the group.
Crimean self-defence stopped their car to check their
luggage at 4 p.m. March 9 at Perekopsk Checkpoint. AutoMaidan representatives learned
that from news reports that militia members found a tattoo to honor the “Heavenly
Hundred,” the 100 people killed in the EuroMaidan Revolution, on Ryazhtseva’s
hand.
“They threw them on their knees and said something
like ‘there is a 100 of you and gonna be a 102 soon’ and laughed,” Dashivets said,
citing information from AutoMaidan sources. “Our helpers have last
seen them alive and tied hands and feet in the building near Perekopsk
checkpoint. It is hard to say if they were well or not, but they seemed to be
crying.”
But the two women haven’t been in touch with their relatives,
friends or colleagues since March 9.
“The last time she (Butko) contacted me was at 2 p.m., she
wrote that they passed the first checkpoint,” Dashivets said. Tyzhden.ua writes
that the women were taking letters to Ukrainian soldiers, some food and other
items “to occupied Ukrainian military units on Crimean territories.”
Dashivets suspects that the women were captured by
Berkut riot police officers or former police officers.
“According to our information, they have started
beating girls right there near the car and people started shouting and asking
them to stop, but they replied something like ‘These bitches were burning us
with napalm’,” Dashivets said.
AutoMaidaners believe the women were held in Berkut
headquarters and while the Crimean self-defence members were ready to let the
activists go, Berkut officers were insisting on keeping them. Some sources have said the women were taken to the Simferopol SBU
security services regional headquarters, but that information has not been
confirmed. The Crimean SBU was among the Ukrainian state institutions that
pledged their loyalty to the new pro-Kremlin Crimean authorities and Russia.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]
Anyone with information about the three women is asked to call the AutoMaidan hotline at: 063-246-5050; 068-790-1919; 066-709-5431 or directly to Illiya Deshavets at 050-980-2936.
