VIDEO
Russia's War Against Ukraine
For years, Stanislav Aseev had secretly chronicled life in Ukraine’s occupied east for pro-Kyiv media. Then the separatists found him and accused him of espionage.
On June 3, Stanislav Aseev disappeared with hardly a trace. That day, the resident of Ukraine’s occupied eastern city of Donetsk was supposed to visit his mother in the neighboring town of Makiiivka. But he never showed, and no one could reach him by phone.
The next day, Aseev’s mother went to his apartment in Donetsk and waited outside for hours. Then she summoned his landlord. Together, they entered the apartment. What they found there made one thing clear: Aseev’s home had been searched, and he was likely in the custody of the Russia-backed separatists who control the city.
The reason was clear to many of the young man’s friends: For several years, Aseev had been secretly chronicling life in the unrecognized “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) for news outlets like Ukrainska Pravda, Zerkalo Tizhnya and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Donbas.Realii project.
Writing under the pseudonym “Stanislav Vasin,” the 27-year-old had covered subjects as diverse as the funeral of separatist warlord Arsen “Motorola” Pavlov, the reintegration of rebel fighters into DPR society, the realities of life in a warzone, and Soviet nostalgia in Donetsk.
