You're reading: Three women reportedly kidnapped in Crimea are alive, well

Two EuroMaidan Revolution activists, Kateryna Butko and Oleksandra Ryaztseva, as well as Tyzhden.ua journalist Olena Maksymenko -- are alive and well.

Maksymenko wrote on her Facebook page that she returned to Kyiv and thanked the public fo their support and promised to tell more at a press conference. Meanwhile, activists Butko and Ryaztseva — who participated in the AutoMaidan motorist protests against Ukrainian officials — are also free. But they were not in Kyiv as of the morning of March 12, but were on their way back to the capital.

“We won’t be telling anything about when and how they have been found before they are in Kyiv and safe,” said AutoMaidan activist Illya Dashivets. “I think it will be possible to contact Butko today, in the evening.”

All three women were reported kidnapped and missing on March 9.

Reportedly their cars were stopped for a luggage check by pro-Kremlin Crimean civilian self-defense units at the Perekopsk checkpoint near Crimea. Later the three women were taken to an unknown location.

AutoMaidan sources told that aggression against the two activists was sparked by Ryaztseva’s tattoo honoring the “Heavenly Hundred,” the 100 people killed during violent clashes between police and protesters at EuroMaidan between Jan. 20 and Feb. 20.

According to AutoMaidan, the women were first kept in a building near the Perekopsk checkpoint and then moved to the Crimean Security Services of Ukraine, or SBU, now run by the pro-Kremlin government. The Crimean SBU was among the Ukrainian state institutions that pledged their loyalty to the new pro-Kremlin Crimean authorities and Russia.

The women were held for almost three days. But on March 11, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on his facebook page that those kidnapped at the Perekopsk checkpoint on March 9 are found alive and negotiations over their release are being held.

AutoMaidan’s Dashivets said the kidnapped activists are going to give a press conference soon.

Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]