You're reading: Donetsk People’s Republic separatists mark Victory Day weekend with new round of killings, abductions

The Donetsk People’s Republic marked the May 9 Victory Day with a new wave of violence, terrorism and kidnapping while the self-proclaimed people’s mayor of Sloviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomariov, reportedly vowed to kill Ukrainian soldiers rather than simply take them hostage.

During the celebration of the Victory Day, Ponomaryov said that from now on his militants would “mercilessly kill” Ukrainian soldiers, shedding what he said had been a tacit agreement to not to shoot to kill them. “There will be no talks anymore. The harsher we will treat them, the sooner they start to respect us,” he said.

By the Kyiv Post’s count, at least 19 people are still being
held hostages by the Kremlin-backed insurgents in the eastern Donetsk
and Luhansk oblasts, out of at least 92 persons captured since April
13. 

The number of killed rose to seven in the last week alone, not counting the more than 20 deaths in clashes in Mariupol on May 9 between the Ukrainian government and the pro-Russian insurgents. Mariupol’s police chief, Valeriy Andruschuk, was kidnapped by separatists during this conflict.

Most of the abductions took place in Sloviansk, a city
of 150,000 people, which became one of the strongest separatist’s centers,
although Luhansk Oblast is no less dangerous now after three civilians were killed
there.

This Kyiv Post update relies on news reports,
primarily from the Donetsk-based news website Novosti Donbassa, Ukraine’s
Security Service, the Prosecutor General’s Office and regional police departments for reports.

The following is the list of 92 persons and the
details of their cases.



A masked pro-Russian activist poses in front of placards reading “Know your enemy in the face” bearing the portraits, addresses and phones numbers of pro-Ukrainian activists stuck on the facade of the regional state building of Donetsk, on May 10, 2014, on the eve of a referendum on independence. Voters in Sunday’s referendums will be asked if they support the creation of two independent republics that many see as a prelude to joining Russia, as happened in Crimea. Ukrainian authorities have, however, poured scorn on the planned referendum, saying it is totally illegitimate. AFP PHOTO/ ALEXANDER KHUDOTEPLY

Seven killed:

May 9 – (Two killed, one
wounded)
– Two cars
with bodies of two adults, a wife and a husband, were found on the outskirts of
Luhansk. According to the Luhansk Prosecutor’s Office, they were gunned by
Kremlin-backed insurgents because they did not stop their cars on the
militant’s request. Killed couple’s 10-year old daughter was found in one of
the cars injured and taken to the hospital.

May 8 – (Killed) — The head of Prosvita
society branch in Krasny Lyman, Valeriy Salo, was found
burnt in his car. Salo was captured on May 7 by the militants of the Donetsk People’s Republic, according to the Luhansk police press service.

May
8

(One killed)Pavlo Zhuchenko, a 44-year-old priest
of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchy, was shot near a
block post near the eastern Ukrainian town Druzhivka, according to the
Prosecutor General’s Office press service. Editor-in-chief of the local news
website Ostov, Serhiy Harmash, reports that the slain priest lived next to the
block post and urged Kyiv’s opponents to surrender arms. The law enforcement
authorities have started an investigation of the case.

Pavlo Zhuchenko, a 44-year-old priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchy.

April 28 – (Dead) — In Sloviansk,
the body was
found at the same site near the river Torets, where the bodies of Horlivka
Town Council deputy Volodymyr Rybak and Kyiv Polytechnic Institute student
Yuriy Popravko were found earlier. The body has been identified as Yuriy Diadkovsky, a 25-year-old student from Stryi in Lviv Oblast. Diadkovsky had been an active
Euromaidan participant since December 3, 2013. According to the Gazeta.ua
website, citing Diadkovsky’s brother Oleh, Yuriy went to Donetsk Oblast on
April 16 with his friend in order to see what was going on there. His was
kidnapped April 17. His body was found 11 days later with the signs of torture.

Yuriy Diadkovsky.

April 22 – (Two killed) — In
Sloviansk, the bodies of two men were
found near the river Torets with signs of torture, according to Ukraine’s
Interior Ministry. One of them has been identified as Volodymyr Rybak, a Horlivka city councilman believed to
have been kidnapped on April 17. He was found with a sandbag tied around his
body and a slash across his stomach. He is believed to have drowned in the
river while unconscious. According to the ministry’s reports, members of the
pro-Russian separatist group who seized the city’s security services building
were involved in the alleged torture and murder of the two men. The second men
has been identified as a 19-year-old Kyiv Polytechnic Institute student Yuriy Popravko.
According to Popravko’s mother, Yaroslava Popravko, cited by Liga.net, on April
16 her son visited his girlfriend in Kharkiv. There was no further contact with
him after that.

Volodymyr Rybak.

Nineteen are still being held

May
9

(One kidnapped)Valeriy Andruschuk, head of Mariupol
police, was kidnapped by the separatist insurgents the same day as the city
police headquarters was stormed and burned down. According to the lawmaker and
presidential candidate Oleh Lyashko, Andruschuk was abducted as a retiree tried to take him out of the burning building.
The information was confirmed by the Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. A retiree,
whose name is unknown, was injured with a knife. Andruschuk’s whereabouts are
unknown.

May 8 – (One being held) – Oleh Demko, the representative
of presidential candidate and Svoboda Part leader Oleh Tiahnybok in Donetsk
region’s Makiyivka, was kidnapped by armed men and taken to the premises of Donetsk regional state administration, according to his
party colleague Pavlo Derkachenko. Demko had been receiving threats during a
whole week before the abduction.

May
7

(One kidnapped)Valeriy Harchuk, member of the local
city council in Rubizhne, Luhansk Oblast, was kidnapped by four masked men,
according to the Luhansk police press office. His whereabouts are unknown.

May 2 – (One held) —
Georgian citizen and pro-Ukrainian activist Basile d’Budik was
kidnapped by unknown masked and armed men in the eastern Ukrainian city of
Horlivka, according to the member of right-wing Svoboda party Maja Karlash.
According to the Council to Georgia Irakli Advadze, d’Budik was reached by
phone and denied the fact of kidnapping, while his relatives say they do not
know activist’s whereabouts. Karlash confirms d’Budik is being held by
pro-Russian militants. The head of the territorial defense battalion “Donbas”
Semen Senchenko offered separatists’ leaders to exchange nine detained
militants for d’Budik and abducted on the same day Mykola Yakubovych.

Georgian citizen and pro-Ukrainian activist Basile d’Budik.

May 2 (One held) —
Mykola Yakubovysch, 
a Donetsk activist
and one of the leaders of the local pro-Ukrainian self-defense, was kidnapped
in the center of the city of Donetsk, according to Novosti Donbassa. He is held
hostage by pro-Russian militants.

May 2 (One held) – Ihor Otrya, 18-year old
student from Krasnyi Lyman, was kidnapped in Sloviansk on his way home from
Kyiv, Gazeta.ua reported. According to Otrya’s parents, their son was detained on suspicion of having connection to
nationalist Right Sector organization. He is currently being held by
pro-Russian insurgents in the seized SBU building.

April 29 – (Two still held) —
Four police officers, including head of the criminal investigation department Vitaliy Benko, Head
of the department for combating drug trafficking Oleg Zaitsev, two
operational servicemen Andriy Redko and Volodymyr Mischenko, were kidnapped in Kramatorsk by
pro-Russian militants after they refused to take separatist’s side, according
to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s press office. They were transported to the
regional SBU headquarters in Sloviansk. On May 2, two of them, Redko and
Mischenko, were released.

April 29 – (Two still held) — Two
members of district election commissions were kidnapped in the Donetsk region. Yaroslav Malanchuk,
a member of a district election commission Krasnoarmiysk from the right-wing
Svoboda party, and Artem Popyk, head of the local Svoboda organization,
were kidnapped in Kostiantynivka.

April 26 – (Still being held) —
A Lviv journalist and freelance correspondent for the local ZiK TV-channel Yuriy Leliavsky was captured by pro-Russian militants
in Sloviansk during a shooting, according to program director of Telekritika
website Viktor Galkin. Leliavsky was taken to the building of the local city
council.

Journalist Yuriy Leliavsky.

April 26 – (One held)
— Serhiy Shapoval
, a journalist for the Volyn Post, has being missing
since April 26 when he decided to head to Sloviansk from Kharkiv, where he was
reporting on the local protests. A communication with him was lost at 3 p.m.
April 26 and at 9 p.m. same day telephone connection was lost, according to the
Telekritika website. He is held hostage by pro-Russian militants.

April 25 – (Two still held) —
Recognized theatre director Pavlo Yurov and
art curator Denys Gryschuk were
kidnapped in Sloviansk. According to the LB.ua website, citing the friends of
the kidnapped men, they were on their way from Donetsk to Kyiv via Sloviansk
when they stopped answering phone calls. A self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk
Viacheslav Ponomaryov later confirmed holding them hostage.

Recognized theatre director Pavlo Yurov and art curator Denys Gryschuk.

April 23 – (Still being held) — Sloviansk City Council member Vadym Sukhonos was abducted by Kremlin-backed
militants, reports TSN television channel, citing local media in the Donetsk
Oblast. Sukhonos apparently was kidnapped for ideological reasons. In February,
he quit the Party of Regions, the dominant party in eastern Ukraine, and is now
a local independent lawmaker.

April 21 – (Still being held) — Kramatorsk chief of police,
Interior Ministry Colonel Vitaliy Kolupai was kidnapped by
Kremlin-backed terrorists, the Interior Ministry reported. The masked
pro-Russian militants have apparently demanded weapons and arms in exchange for
the police colonel’s release. The Interior Ministry accuses Russian military
intelligence Colonel Igor Strelkov for commandeering the kidnapping. Ukraine
Security Service has identified the Russian colonel as the chief coordinator in
the slow-motion Russian invasion of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts by using a
combination of Russian special forces and black operatives, a deeply-rooted
network of spies and agent saboteurs who are Russians and Ukrainians, and the
cooperation of local elements of law enforcement and government officials.

April 20 – (Still being held) — Irma Krat, 29, the editor-in-chief of Hidden Truth TV,
was captured around 8 p.m. on Easter Sunday, Krat’s lawyer, Oleg Veremiyenko, told the Kyiv Post. She is reportedly being held in the Ukrainian State
Security Service building in Sloviansk. The day after her capture, the
pro-Russian separatist group holding her  paraded her to meet the press,
during which time she confirmed she was being held but said that she had not
been harmed.

April 19 – (Whereabouts unknown) — Local media has reported that
Kremlin-backed separatists kidnapped the chief of police in Sloviansk,
Lieutenant-Colonel Oleg Prokhorov, but
officials are yet to officially confirm the abduction. Prokhorov’s
whereabouts are unknown.

Released
hostages:

May
9

(Seven released) — Kremlin-backed
militants stormed into the Red Cross office in Donetsk and captured seven people, including one citizen of
France and six Ukrainians from Kyiv and Donetsk. All of them were freed after
several hours of detention, as was confirmed by the local Red Cross official.
According to the spokesman of the separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic”, Red
Cross volunteers were detained on suspicion of
espionage. Iryna Tsariuk from the Ukrainian Red Cross said one of the released
hostages has been severely beaten. It is also reported that insurgents seized
medicine, which was delivered to Donetsk Red Cross office for distribution in
the region.

May
7 – (One released)
– Armed militants kidnapped a man, who took part into the motor rally for the united Ukraine,
according to journalist Ekaterina Sergatskova. The abduction took place in
Stahaniv, Luhansk Oblast. He was kept in the seized SBU building, tortured and
interrogated, and released May 8.

May 4 – (Released) — Pro-Russian militants broke into the house
of the member of Novogorodenka (Donetsk Oblast) city council and kidnapped him
and five men visiting him, according to the SBU press office. Three of them, a
coal miner Oleksandr Vovk, a member of the local city council from
the Communist party of Ukraine Oleg Bubich and
a member of the local city council from the Party of Regions Valeriy Pavlyk , were released on May 5. Each of them
has the signs of torture, according to the press service of the Confederation
of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine. Three other, including a coal miner Oleksandr Gurov, a
member of the local city council from the Defenders of the Motherland Party Kostyantyn Musiyenko and an unknown man, were
released on May 6. While being detained coal miners were constantly beaten and
tortured. For instance, militants tried to cut of the words “Glory to Ukraine”,
which were tattooed on Gurov’s arm. Gurov claims he was abducted for his strong
pro-Ukrainian position.

Coal miner Oleksandr Gurov.

May 3 – (Released) — Five servicemen of the Armed Forced of Ukraine were
kidnapped by masked pro-Russian militants in Melekino village, Donetsk Oblast.
They had being detained at the seized Mariupol city council building for
several hours and released May 4 at 1 a.m., says SBU press office’s statement.

May 3 – (Released) — Armed
men in camouflage kidnapped two persons,Oleksiy Bida and Anna Mokrousova, in
Luhansk, kept them in seized regional SBU headquarters for several hours and
released afterwards, according to the activists of community Euromaidan SOS.

May 2 (Released) – Three groups of Western journalists from
a number of news outlets were briefly detained by pro-Russian militants in
eastern Ukraine, according to Novosti Donbassa. Mike Giglio from American BuzzFeed and his
translator Olena Glazunova were
taken from a checkpoint en route to Sloviansk by pro-Russian militants,
blindfolded, held at seized police building for three hours and released, says
Mike Giglio’s on his Twitter. Americans reporters for CBS Clarissa WardErin LyallAndy SrevensonGeoff Mabberley and a team with Britain’s SkyNews Stuart RamsayBarnaby Green and their translators Oleg Malko and Oleksandr Pustovit were
detained at rebel-held check-points and released after couple hours.

April 29 – (Released) — Five activists were
briefly detained by separatists after a pro-Ukrainian rally in Donetsk, reports
Novosti Donbassa website citing the organizer of the rally Diana Berg. They
were freed later that day, which was confirmed by the local militia’s press
office.

April 26 – (Released) — Major Serhiy Potiomsky, Captain Eugeniy Verinsky, Lieutenant Colonel Rostyslav Kyjashko from SBU’s  high-ranking
Alpha Group were kidnapped in Kramatorsk, while they were on their way to
Horlivka. Kremlin-backed militants took hostages to Sloviansk, where they were
interviewed by Russian journalists. On the video, immediately published on the
Internet, SBU officers were answering questions while seating with their pants
off, hands tied, blindfolded and showing signs of having been beaten. According
to the SBU’s statement, the group was kidnapped while performing a task to
arrest a Russian citizen suspected of killing Horlivka city council member
Volodymyr Rybak. Rybak was kidnapped on April 17, five days later his body was
found near the river Torets in Sloviansk with signs of torture. All three were released on May 7. According to
representatives of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” they were exchanged for the Donetsk region’s “people’s
governor” Pavlo Gubarev. SBU press service says it would not be correctly
to say that an act exchange had occurred although confirms that all three
servicemen were freed.

April 25 – (Released) — Eight members of
a military monitoring mission were abducted on April 25 and held hostage in
Sloviansk by pro-Russian separatist forces. The group of OSCE monitors,
including four Germans, a Swede, a Pole, a Dane, and a Czech, were traveling by
bus from Kramatorsk to Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast and were accompanied by five Ukrainian soldiers, includingIhor TuranskyOleksandr MatvijenkoValeriy Udod, Oleksij Pluschev andAndriy Kolodka.
Pro-Russian militants showed the documents of some of them, including John Christensen (Denmark), Krzysztof Kobelski (Poland), Axel Schneider (Germany). On April 27 a Swede
OSCE officer, major Thomas Johannson,
who suffers from diabetes, was freed. On May 3 all the other members of the
mission and Ukrainians, who were accompanying them, were freed.

April 25 – (Released) — Yevhen Hapych, a
journalist from the Ivano Frankivsk Oblast town of Kolomyia
in western Ukraine, who on April 22 was kidnapped with his brother
Hennadiy in Donetsk Oblast, were released and made it home on April 25. Hapych had received a travel grant
from Telekritika, a Kyiv-based media watchdog organization, to report in
Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. His work was to be published in various
media.

Yevhen Hapych.

April 22 – (Released) — Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the
self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk in northern Donetsk Oblast confirmed that
unidentified people in uniform had captured Vice News journalist Simon
Ostrovsky
, an American, who was last
seen early morning on April 22. Ostrovsky was released three days later.

Vice News journalist Simon Ostrovsky.

April 22 – (Released) — Yuriy Zahrebelny,
prosecutor of Sloviansk, was reportedly kidnapped in his office at about 5:50
p.m. by a group of three armed and
masked men, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said on April 23. They brought him by
car in an unknown direction and released in some 40 minutes later. Zahrebelny
refused to disclose the details of his interrogation, the police said.

April 22 – (Released) —
At about 11 a.m. several people in masks came into the office of
Sloviansk medical forensics service and captured its head, Mr. Yakymov,
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry reported. The ministry did not disclose his first
name. Yakymov was taken to the local SBU headquarters now occupied by
pro-Russian separatists. At about 2 p.m.Yakymov was released and refused
to comment on the details of his captivity. “He is very scared after that,”
Stanislav Rechynsky, an Interior Ministry adviser said during a news briefing
on April 23. “Apparently it was related to (Volodymyr) Rybak’s murder.

April 21 – (Released) — Italian journalists Paul Gogo and Kossimo Attanasio, and
Belarusian journalist Dmitry Galko were
kidnapped by separatists in Sloviansk while filming events in the
city. Later the journalists were released, but their reporting
equipment, money and personal documents were confiscated.

April 18 – (Released) — Sloviansk Mayor Nelya Shtepa disappeared after she attempted to
meet with separatist leader Vyacheslav Ponomarev. Initially, Shtepa appeared to
support separatists before changing course and confirming her support for
authorities in Kyiv. On April 22, she appeared on pro-Kremlin TV Life
News saying that she is thankful to Russian President Vladimir Putin. She
is believed to be held inside one of the buildings occupied by the separatists
in Sloviansk. They have said that she is fine and being fed well. On April 30,
Shtepa resigned.

April 16 – (Released) —
Ukrainian journalist Serhiy Lefter was
kidnapped while reporting on events in Sloviansk. He had being held in the
basement of the Ukrainian State Security Service building in Sloviansk until May 2, when he was released together
with another hostage, Sloviansk resident Artem
Deynega
. Deynega was abducted by pro-Russian insurgents on April 13 after
he was observed filming from the balcony of his family’s apartement. The
apartment is across the street from the Ukrainian Security Service building in
Sloviansk. Lefter was working with the non-governmental organization Open
Dialog Foundation when he was captured. Despite been freed on late night May 2
Lefter arrived in Kyiv only five days later as they were hiding in SLoviansk
fearing pursuit. During press-conference on May 8 Lefter said that he was
treated not that bad during detention and was occasionally questioned, whether
he had any connections to nationalist Right Sector organization.

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