On Aug. 7, Russian-backed rebels abducted Ukrainian civic activist and blogger, Dmytro Potekhin in Donetsk, according to local reports citing his relatives and social media. His father, Oleksandr Potekhin, wasn’t reachable by phone and didn’t respond to a voice message left with his number.
Olesia
Oleshko, a press officer for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post that “we have received a phone call from a person
who told us that he (Potekhin) was detained and kept in Donetsk…Unfortunately
we don’t know any other details.”
Potekhin’s former colleague, Peter Kosh, said on
Facebook that he is accused
of spying and is jailed in the Izolyatsia (isolation) art
center.
A converted power plant, this building was
captured by separatist forces on June 9 and
is now believed to be the base of the pro-Russian Vostok Battalion, whose many
members reportedly are from the Caucuses region in Russia.
Potekhin reportedly arrived at the Donetsk
railway station on Aug. 6. His family last heard from him the following day,
a TVi news report said. The next day he was detained at the same station,
apparently waiting for a Kyiv-bound train. Additionally, the activist’s last
facebook post was on Aug. 7.
His friend, Viktor Kovalenko, told the
Kyiv Post that he had frequently travelled to Donetsk to meet with other
activists – this particular trip was planned for two days, but its purpose was
unknown.
An acquaintance of Potekhin’s who wished
to remain anonymous for personal reasons, said he received information of the
detention from a person who had shared a cell with him in Donetsk.
“He said that the cell was concrete and
there were no beds. But they were fed well. He didn’t see any signs of physical
violence on Dmytro (Potekhin),” said the acquaintance.
“We don’t think he was targeted – we think
it was a coincidence that they detained him. He didn’t tell anyone why he was
going. The only thing that he said was, ‘if you havent’ heard from me in two
days time, I’m in trouble,’” the source said.
Potekhin rose to prominence during the
Orange Revolution when he coordinated his Znayu (I know) initiative,
pressuring for transparent presidential elections. He worked as a
political analyst at the Embassy of Japan in Ukraine during the 2004
presidential elections and 2006 parliamentary election.
During this period, he also worked at
the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation and ran one of their Western-funded projects on voter
education and mobilization campaigns.
Last November, Potekhin started a petition
drive questioning the entire legitimacy of the Yanukovych administration. He
stopped writing his blog at Ukrainskaya Pravda that same month.
During the EuroMaidan Revolution, Potekhin
helped train other activists in what he referred to as “passive resistance.”
Currently he is the director of European Strategy Group, a policy center.
According to the source, negotiations with
his captors began earlier today. They confirmed that he is still alive.
Kyiv Post intern Francesca Ebel can be reached at [email protected].
