Putin's shadow: civilians in Ukraine - outrageous fates!

Putin's shadow: civilians in Ukraine - outrageous fates!

In the continuing violence and uncertainty as a result of the Ukraine conflict, numerous civilians have become victims of arbitrary arrests. Liusiena Zinovkina desperately fights for the freedom of her husband Kostya, who was arrested by masked men in Melitopol in May 2023. At that time, Kostya was with his sick grandmother and mother, while Liusiena was in Kiev. To date, shocking 14,000 civilians have been illegally brought to prison camps, as is clear on the basis of Ukrainian investigations, which document the total number of arrests. The Russian authorities often do not provide any information about the whereabouts of the detainees, which increases the despair of relatives. This is how Liusiena receives letters from Kostya in which he calms her down with loving drawings.

A great exchange of prisoners in which 4,131 people were released, including 173 civilians, brought no relief for Liusiena. Kostya was not part of this exchange, and the process led against him still has no fixed appointments. As a trained psychologist and social worker, Liusiena supports families in Berlin while fighting for her husband.

abuse in captivity

The fates of Kostya and many others embody the grim reality of war law in Ukraine. UN investigators report serious abuse and killings of civilians in Russian captivity. According to the UN office for monitoring human rights, extensive war crimes were documented by Russian troops. The head of the investigation Matilda Bogner found that most respondents reported torture and abuse. Evidence suggests that 77 detained people were executed arbitrarily.

A total of at least 864 cases of arbitrary detention have been registered since the beginning of the war in February 2022 to May 2023. The detainees not only included ordinary citizens, but also public personalities, humanitarian helpers, priests and teachers. Almost all respondents reported torture methods, including rape. Cases of arrested civilians who experienced similar things were also documented on the Ukrainian side. Both parties to the conflict violate their arrests against international law.

The absence of information

The desperate location of many families is further exacerbated by the lack of information about their relatives. An example is Polina who fled from the areas occupied by Russia in August 2022, while her husband was left behind to maintain his sick father. There has been no trace of him since he was arrested. Russian authorities in the occupied areas are often not willing to provide information about the whereabouts of the detainees.

The international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, urgently ask the international community to put pressure on Russia in order to end the constant international law crimes. The far -reaching consequences of these acts of violence and the associated separation of tens of thousands of families are devastating. Agnès Callamard pointed out that the people concerned suffer not only from the killings, detainees and torture, but also their relatives who have a right to truth and justice.

The tragedy of the Ukraine conflict is evident in these individual fates and the ongoing uncertainty that contains tens of thousands of families throughout the country. The global community faces the challenge of addressing this humanitarian emergency and helping the relatives concerned.