Despite the Russian-backed separatists’ May 2 release of 12 hostages, including seven foreigners from an OSCE military monitoring mission, 24 people are still being held hostage in Donestsk Oblast by the militants.
All but one – a Georgian citizen abducted on May 2 – is Ukrainian. Altogether, 74 people were kidnapped in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts since April 13. Most were released; three were killed.
This Kyiv Post update relies on news reporters, primarily from the Donetsk-based news website Novosti Donbassa, and Ukraine’s Security Service.
Most of the abductions took place in Sloviansk, a city of 150,000 people still occupied by Kremlin-backed insurgents. The city is currently surrounded by the Ukrainian troops and remains perhaps the most dangerous place in Ukraine today. All the hostages are being kept in seized government buildings, according to all reports.
The following is a list of the 74 persons and details of the cases.Still being held hostage:
May 4 – (Three still held) — 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, are still being held. Gurov was badly
beaten by the separatists, freed hostages said.
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.
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.
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 – (Three still held) — 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. SBU confirmed its
officers were kidnapped. 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.
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.
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.
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 and the leader of an all-female self-defense unit during the
EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted the former government and President Viktor
Yanukovych, was captured around 8 p.m. on Easter Sunday, Krat’s lawyer, Oleg Veremiyenko, told the Kyiv Post. Krat
was “taken hostage,” Veremiyenko said, on suspicion of torturing and killing a
Berkut riot police officer. 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.
April 16 – (Still being held) — Ukrainian
journalist Serhiy Lefter was kidnapped by
unknown persons while reporting on events in Sloviansk. Some reports have
indicated that Lefter is being held in the basement of the Ukrainian State
Security Service building in Sloviansk, but that information has not been
confirmed. The Donetsk department of the Interior Ministry said they have
no witnesses or facts regarding the Lefter’s case. Agnieszka Piasecka, a
representative of Open Dialog Foundation, the non-governmental organization he
was working with when he was captured, told the Kyiv Post that the foundation
last had contact with him on April 15. After that, she said, “we could not
reach him but we thought it is a part of the connection problem regarding the
anti-terrorist operation in the east.” She later received “an alerting email”
confirming Lefter was being held captive “and is accused of espionage and
cooperation with Right Sector.”
April 13 – (Still being held) — Artem Deynega, a Sloviansk resident, was kidnapped
by unknown persons after he was observed filming from the balcony of his
family’s apartment. The apartment is across the street from the Ukrainian
Security Service building in Sloviansk. It is reported that Deynega is held hostage by pro-Russian militants.
Three were killed:
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, 25-year old student from Stryi,
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.
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.
Released hostages:
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 Ward, Erin Lyall,
Andy Srevenson, Geoff Mabberley and a team with Britain’s SkyNews
Stuart Ramsay, Barnaby 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 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, including Ihor Turansky, Oleksandr
Matvijenko, Valeriy Udod, Oleksij Pluschev and Andriy
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.
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.
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.
Kyiv Post editor Christopher J. Miller, editor Mark Rachkevych, staff
writers Oksana Grytsenko and Oksana Mamchenkova contributed reporting.
