A senior government human rights advocate on Thursday, March 31,accused Russian Federation (RF) forces in Ukraine of carrying out a systematic campaign of kidnapping and possible torture of mayors of villages and towns loyal to Kyiv, but under Russian army control.
Lyudmyla Denisova, senior human rights ombudsman for Ukraine’s national legislature, in a statement on her government Facebook page said that since the Kremlin’s 24 Feb. invasion Russian forces have abducted eleven elected mayors and eight other regional officials unwilling to cooperate with RF authorities, sometimes detaining victims for days, and in some instances torturing them.
She said that in raids on Tuesday and Wednesday Russian soldiers abducted the mayor of village Primorsk, Oleksandr Koshelevych, the mayor of the village Beryslav, Oleksandr Shapovalov – both in Zaporizhzhia region, the mayor of Prystan, Oleksandr Babych, in the Kherson Oblas; and Anatoliy Siry, head of the Novoborovytsia municipality. The kidnappers said they would release Siry if a key road in the vicinity was cleared of fallen trees.
In RF-occupied Kherson, Denysova said, three “police” cooperating with RF authorities grabbed Serhiy Chudynovych, an Orthodox Church of Ukraine priest well-known in the community for activism and volunteer work, threw him into a car, and carried him off. The “police” broke into the church and recorded identity information of worshipers, she claimed.
Denysova said that by taking hostages, RF soldiers and officials violate Articles 3 and 34 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
