ASTRA talked to the relatives of the Kherson residents who were abducted by the Russian military. Their stories are completely different — someone is taken away for serving in the defense Ministry, someone for participating in the war, and someone for no reason at all — even plumbers and pensioners. The relatives of those abductedaren’t told where they are or when they will be released. We talked to the families of the abducted Valentin Sobol, Roman Ishchenko, Sergei Arefyev — their relatives do not even know if they are alive. ASTRA also talked to another family, their relative was released, with the conditions of signing a paper “on cooperation”. Their names and other data are not mentioned in the article for obvious reasons.

On April 14, Lilia Makhalova, with her children and her brother’s wife, Valentina Sobol, left the village of Ivanovka, Kherson region. Valentin stayed in the village to look after the car.

In March — at that time Ivanovka was already occupied by the Russian Federation and the “DPR” military — Valentin’s phone was taken away, and he himself was detained and interrogated for an hour. When they realized that he had no valuable information, the man was released.

Lilia says that a month later, on April 28, soldiers, presumably from the “DPR”, took her brother’s car: “They said: “Don’t worry, we’ll get it back.” The next day they rode it and crashed it. And a day later they burned it. They took cars from everyone in this village.” And the next day, on April 29, two uniformed soldiers came to his house and told him to follow them.

“The neighbors called us and said that he had been taken away. At the moment, it is unknown where he is, what he is and how. The next day, the neighbors met the car in which the brother was picked up, asked where he was being held and why he was taken away at all. They said they would check him, and if everything was fine, they would let him go. They also said that he might have been taken to Kherson for verification. In Kherson, we contacted relatives — they went to the commandant’s office, wrote a statement. They said that he was not there and that he could be in Kakhovka. They also wrote to Kakhovka — he is not there either.

My brother didn’t participate in any unions, wasn;t a soldier. He is an ordinary civilian. What was he taken for? Why is it taking so long? He has been gone for more than 15 days, and no one can give us an answer,” says Lilia.

According to her, if there is still any order in Kherson, then complete chaos is happening in the villages: “In such villages – Vysokopolye, Alexandrovka — terrible things are happening there. It’s just a cry for help. Those who left there write that they are taking people away, looting. In our village, too, all the shops were opened and looted. The cars were taken away from everyone — they are all broken down. They drive drunk. People were just afraid to move around the streets, afraid to leave the house.”

Sasha’s dad was kidnapped on April 19th. At 5.30 am, seven people in military uniforms came to their house. At that moment, Sasha’s grandmother was in the house with Sasha’s dad, Roman Ishchenko.

“We live in a private house, in a dead-end alley, and the soldiers were distributed so that everyone stood near the houses of the neighbors. One was standing in our garden, two were holding Dad against the wall. One was standing next to his grandmother in the house, and another was in civilian clothes and in a balaclava conducting a search. They didn’t find anything, of course, because we have nothing to look for. They took 2 phones, a laptop and took Dad away in an unknown direction,” Sasha says.

Neighbors who heard a noise on the street were threatened with machine guns — even those who were watching from the window.

4 weeks have passed since then. Sasha’s grandmother goes to the military commandant’s office of the city every day, where she is told two things at the same time: that Roman is fine, he is “fed and not beaten,” and that they “don’t know where he is and are looking for him.” Sasha’s family has written to all authorities, to no avail, they can’t get any information about him.

“My dad did not serve in either army or the Defense Ministry. He did not run social networks, so it makes no sense to take dad away to use them for statements [Sasha is referring to the situation with abducted activists in Kherson, from whose phones the Russian military posted pro-Russian slogans]. I do not know why he is being held for so long, some are released in a couple of days, and dad has been held for a very long time. We’re trying to find out if he’s been taken somewhere. Maybe we’re not looking at the right place at all. And that’s the most depressing thing. We don’t even know if he’s alive,” Sasha says. .

The girl herself studies in Kiev, her mother left Kherson on the first day of the war, and her father stayed in the city. “I do not know why or for what. He’s just a civilian, a pensioner. He does not deserve to be captured — as none of the Kherson residents deserves.”

Polina’s husband, Sergei Arefyev, was kidnapped right on the street. On March 23, he and a friend went to the city center to buy cigarettes. A car abruptly drove up to them near the shopping center, the men were grabbed, bags were put on their heads, pushed into a car and taken away for interrogation. The men were interrogated in separate offices.

Sergei’s friend was interviewed, his phone was checked and released 4 hours after the arrest — he told Polina about the kidnapping. Sergei was left behind.

“My husband speaks Ukrainian, a friend heard that an interpreter was even brought to him for interrogation in order to somehow take testimony. Initially, he may have been detained only because he spoke Ukrainian,” says Polina.

On March 26, a Russian military man called Polina from an unknown number and said that he needed her husband’s passport: “He said that in 10 minutes they would be with me. And he gave my address.” 10 minutes later, two soldiers — one in full uniform and with weapon, the second, according to Polina, a higher rank, without a machine gun, arrived on her street, but they went to the wrong house. “We have a house next door with the same number, only with the letter “A”. And the military saw the wrong house: they drove up to the one with the letter “A” in the same entrance. I saw that they were trying to open the door and realized that it was for me. I ran in that direction because I thought that, God forbid, people would start breaking down the door there. We have doors with magnetic locks and I noticed how he tries to open the door with a magnet, but it doesn’t work. I went up to him and said: “You came to me, you got the wrong house number.”

Polina noticed that the military man was holding her husband’s keys in his hands. To her request to give them back, the man replied: “It is not allowed.” “They took his passport, said that if I had any important information, let me know. I say, “What information?” He says, “Well, you know. You can call.” And that’s it,” the girl says.

On March 27, Polina tried to call the same military number to “buy her husband out”: “I know how it sounds, but still. I was so panicked and hysterical that I didn’t know what to come up with.

“I called and asked if there was any way to try to solve this issue. To which the man said to me: “Forget this phrase, forget this idea, because your child will remain an orphan.” And I didn’t call after that.”

According to the girl, on the day of the abduction, the military turned off geolocation on her husband’s phone only after they brought him for interrogation. She knows where he was initially kept — in a building on Lutheranskaya Street: “They have equipment, cars, and their entire fleet there, everything is there.”

Polina visited the thresholds of both the military commandant’s office and all “these evil places” — she still does not know anything about her husband’s whereabouts. The girl communicates with relatives of other abducted men. “In all these places where the SFU, the prosecutor’s office, the pre-trial detention center used to be, there are a lot of stolen people, a lot of prisoners – they are all there. They sort them somehow: military in one room, civilians in another. Men were also taken away from my friends, they then asked: “Where were you held? Who was with you?” Everyone’s information is different. One is sitting in a cell, then there are several of them in the cell.

All movements in these buildings take place with their eyes closed, that is, they do not see where they are. If someone is released, they are taken either to the city center or somewhere else, where they are thrown out blindfolded and leave. That is, a person can’t even understand where he was.”

Polina says that the reason for her husband’s detention may be that he works as a mobile communications engineer: perhaps he is being held to fix some kind of interruptions. He has not taken part in any military operations since the beginning of February 24. Sergei was not in the defense team either. “We’ve been sitting at home all this time, he hasn’t entered any defense zone, anywhere. He was sitting with his family. We have the whole entrance left — these are grandmothers, mothers with children, there are disabled people there. He ran to the shops, provided the entire entrance with food, we bought them ourselves, distributed them, did not take money from people. We couldn’t help the whole city, but we tried to support at least our own entrance.”

Polina also said that employees of the special services of the Russian Federation, who are dressed in civilian clothes, can be identified in the city by medical masks: “This can be noticed at the rally on May 9. When the parade was taking place. Those who were masked there were FSB, Rosgvardiya, and military personnel. The cap, the mask is their employee. Because no one in our city has been wearing masks for a long time.”

Inna’s father, Anatoly (name changed), was kidnapped in early May. The Russian military burst into the house in full gear, called Anatoly’s name and surname, and demanded to hand over his weapons (he served in the local defense ministry). The apartment was searched, it was filmed on the phone by one of the armed men. Inna’s dad was told to pack up and “dress warmly, because it’s cold where he’s going, and he’s going to be there for a long time

On the same day, several other men were taken from the house. According to Inna, some of them were beaten and tortured in the basement, then released, some were taken away in an unknown direction on a car with the letter Z. Their relatives still don’t know what’s wrong with them.

“They are generally hunting for the “Right Sector”* [banned in the Russian Federation], which hasn’t existed since 2014, after the Maidan, this movement did not break through anywhere. And perhaps they were looking for some of them and therefore tortured them, they thought they would give some more information,” Inna says.

Inna’s relative also witnessed the abduction of a man. The military entered the house, went up to the desired floor and opened the door with their own key, after which they entered and took out the weapons. The man, leaving the apartment, knocked out a window in the stairwell and jumped from the 2nd floor, and then ran and began to call for help. At that time, there was no one on the street except Inna’s relative. They caught up with him, tied him up and pushed him into the car. After a while, he managed to contact his younger sister. He said he was alive, but he was no longer in Ukraine.

The girl communicated with relatives of other abducted people — they told her that they were being taken to the building of the Court of Appeal. Anatoly’s family, when they turned there, were told to wait a few days, and if “everything is OK with him,” then the man would be released. They also asked relatives: “Is he by any chance a nationalist? So many nationalists are being brought to us, it’s a nightmare everywhere, all fascists, nationalists.”

“In short, it’s complete nonsense, right from Channel One,” Inna notes.

Inna’s father was eventually released: he signed a document stating that he would cooperate.

After this happened, the locals thought that the men had been “pawned” by the former housekeeper. The woman was called a collaborator, her face was smashed with a brick, and her daughter was threatened. The manager’s husband also got beaten. It later turned out that she had nothing to do with it. Another woman “handed over” the men — the tenants of the house tracked down a neighbor on CCTV cameras, who on the eve of the abduction pointed out to the military the “necessary” apartments.

“A lot of volunteers are kidnapped, there are many acquaintances who were taken out and held “explanatory talks” for them in some garages and basements, threatened and released back, on the condition that they either cooperate or close their mouths and do nothing. People are being taken out, someone is being tortured for a long time, held hostage. I do not know what their purpose is, but a lot of people are missing. Just recently, I read that 6 people were stolen at a rally on May 9, among them 3 women and one pregnant woman. One was released at 3 p.m., she was also held in the Court of Appeal.

The people of Kherson still do not give up, they are trying to convey that Kherson is Ukraine. There are not many brave people left, but people are trying. One woman was taken away because she had a yellow and blue ribbon in her hair.

We are not used to this at all and we will not put up with it, because for us it is like a hand around our neck. We have always had freedom of expression, we could speak both for and against Zelensky, and say anything. And now people can’t put up with it and aren’t even going to get used to it. Therefore, I think people will risk their lives, but fight for their freedom to the end,” the girl says.

In order to figure out exactly which international laws and acts the Russian military violates by kidnapping people in occupied Kherson, as well as to find out who and how the relatives of the abducted should contact in order to return their relatives and get a trial of the kidnappers if their guilt is established, ASTRA turned to Olga Timireva, a human rights defender and lawyer with experience in protecting human rights in international instances. In 2013-2016. Olga worked in the Office of the Commissioner of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights, ensuring the enforcement of ECHR rulings against the Russian Federation.

“In a situation of active hostilities, unlike in peacetime, unfortunately, dehumanization always occurs, citizens always suffer, and the further they go, the more. Absolutely all basic human rights are violated.

In the described cases, first of all, we are talking about a violation of the right to freedom and personal integrity (article 5 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, hereinafter referred to as the “ECHR”; article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, hereinafter referred to as the “Covenant”),” says Olga Timireva.

The actions of the Russian military, in the case of kidnappings, violate the following international acts:

• Article 2 of the ECHR/6 of the Covenant: the right to life, the duty of investigation;
• Article 3 ECHR/7 of the Covenant: prohibition of torture, duty of investigation;
• Article 5 ECHR/9 of the Covenant: the right to liberty and security of person.

“Both international organizations and national authorities are engaged in the investigation and establishment of facts.

The specificity of international judicial organizations, such as the European Court of Human Rights or the UN Human Rights Committee, is that before applying to them, it is necessary to exhaust national remedies. It will not be possible to appeal to the International Court of Justice directly without trying to resolve the situation at the national level – such a complaint is considered unacceptable. Moreover, it is better to resort to qualified assistance, there are a lot of nuances, specialists in the field of human rights protection are well acquainted with all the subtleties of the procedure, many are ready to help free of charge, especially when people are in such distress,” says Olga Timireva.

The human rights activist adds that the most important action that relatives should take is to collect evidence and maximize publicity.

“Record absolutely everything you can. Make calls, photos, videos, interview in writing or on the record of witnesses and eyewitnesses. Document it. Apply to all authorities, without neglecting those that you consider unfriendly in the circumstances. If the goal is to find a person, then you should not miss a single chance,” the lawyer believes.

Olga notes that the main task of the relatives of the abducted in such situations is to describe and record the fact of what happened. Statements can be written in free form, it is best to do it chronologically, Olga is sure. At the request of ASTRA, the human rights defender has compiled a list of bodies and instances to which it makes sense to submit applications and appeals in cases that occurred with the heroes of this article:

• Applications to national authorities, such as the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine and the Chief Military Prosecutor, whose functions include investigating “crimes against the national security of Ukraine, peace, human security and international law and order”

• Applications to Russian investigative bodies, for example, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia
• Applications to International Human Rights organizations, including:
• UN Committees (UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), UN Committee against Torture, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine)
• Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), in particular the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)
• Amnesty International
• Human Rights Watch

Courts:

• ECHR (currently unavailable for complaint against Russia)
• The UN Human Rights Committee

Writing applications to international organizations is very important, the expert believes.

“For example, the reports of the UN OHCHR, compiled, among other things, on the basis of such statements, pointed to numerous alleged individual cases of ill-treatment (sometimes described as torture) and detention by the Russian armed forces, the SSC, “representatives of the “special services” or “unknown persons in uniform without insignia” that occurred in Crimea in 2014-2015 years. In some cases, victims allegedly detained by the SSC were subsequently handed over to the Russian military. All this formed the basis of the interstate judicial proceedings,” says Olga Timireva.

The lawyer notes that the current situation is complicated by the fact that Russia has denounced the ECHR and withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

“In any case, you need to take all the necessary steps that depend on you. The process in international courts is not a quick one, it takes several years,” the human rights activist says.
“As for court cases, for example, the ECHR, considering similar cases that took place in Crimea in 2014, established the existence of the so-called administrative practice of “enforced disappearances.” Administrative practice is a situation of systemic, i.e. numerous and interrelated official tolerance of controlling persons to the inherent illegal actions, that is, a situation where the management knows about the violation and turns a blind eye to it, or, worse, deliberately gives the appropriate order. The establishment of administrative practice facilitates the process of proof for victims of violations, therefore it is very important to make every effort to ensure that information about the abduction is covered and recorded as much as possible,” Olga Timireva notes.

On May 13, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced that about 120 people had been abducted in Kherson. Their whereabouts are currently unknown.