KYIV, Ukraine — Alina Kapatsyna frequently fantasizes about receiving a call from her mother. In these visions, her mother informs her that she will soon return home.
In April, men in military uniforms removed 45-year-old Vita Hannych from her home in eastern Ukraine. She did not return.
Her family eventually discovered that Hannych, who has long suffered from seizures due to a brain cyst, is being held in the Russian-occupied portion of the Donetsk region.
It remains unclear, according to Kapatsyna, why her mother, a “peaceful, civilian, and sick person” who has never held a weapon, was jailed.
Hannych is one of a large number of Ukrainian noncombatants detained by Russian forces for months after their invasion. Some are considered prisoners of war despite having never participated in the conflict. Others are in a legal limbo, neither facing criminal accusations nor being labeled POWs.
Hannych was captured by Russian forces holding the hamlet of Volodymyrivka several weeks after the February 24 invasion, wearing only a sweatsuit and slippers. It remains under the sovereignty of Moscow.
On January 6, 2023, in Dnipro, Ukraine, Alina Kapatsyna listens to the voicemails that her mother, Vita Hannych, sent her prior to her capture by the Russians.
AP
Her family initially believed she would return home soon. Russian forces were known to keep individuals for two or three days before releasing them, Kapatsyna stated, and Hannych had no military or law enforcement ties.
When she was not released, Kapatsyna and her grandma of 64 years began searching for her. Initially, correspondence and visits to various Russian-installed officials and government agencies in the Donetsk region were fruitless.
“The responses from everywhere were identical: ‘We did not abduct her.’ Who then kidnapped her, if no one did?” stated Kapatsyna, who left the village in March for the city of Dnipro under Ukrainian administration.
Then, they obtained clarity: Hannych was imprisoned in Olenivka, another Russian-controlled city, according to a letter from the prosecutor’s office in the Donetsk region that had been established by Moscow.
Given her state, her family finds it ludicrous that the jail personnel told Kapatsyna’s grandmother that Hannych was a sniper. According to medical records obtained by the Associated Press, she was diagnosed with a brain cyst, “residual encephalopathy,” and “general convulsive attacks.”
Alina Kapatsyna carries a banner that reads “Bring back my mother from captivity” in Ukrainian on January 6, 2023 in Dnipro, Ukraine.
AP
Anna Vorosheva, who spent 100 days in the same facility as Viktor Yanukovych, described filthy, terrible conditions: putrid drinking water, no heat or showers, sleeping in shifts, and hearing the screams of fresh detainees being thrashed.
Vorosheva, 46, stated that she was not informed of the reason for her detention, other than “smirks and jokes about Nazis” — a reference to Russia’s erroneous assertions that its “special military operation” was a plot to “denazify” Ukraine. In addition, the staff reportedly advised her, “Be glad we’re not beating you.”
Donetsk officials have identified Hannych as a prisoner of war and recently informed her family that she is imprisoned in the seized city of Mariupol. It is unknown when, if ever, she might be released.
The Center for Civil Liberties, the leading human rights organization in Ukraine, has requests on approximately 900 citizens taken by Russia since the start of the war, with more than half still in custody.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ambassador, stated on Friday that his office has received inquiries regarding the detention of more than 20,000 “civilian hostages” by Russia.
The Russian attorney Leonid Solovyov told the Associated Press that he has received more than 100 petitions regarding Ukrainian citizens. He stated that he was able to confirm for 30 to 40 clients that the individual they sought was in Russian detention without legal status, precisely like his client, Mykyta Shkriabin.
The student from the Kharkiv region of northern Ukraine was detained by Russia’s military in March and has been kept without accusations or judicial proceedings ever since.
On January 16, 2023, Ukrainian artillerymen fire an L119 howitzer towards Russian positions along a front line in the Lugansk region.
According to Shkryabin’s mother, Tetiana, the then-19-year-old hid in a cellar with his family during the battle. He left for supplies during a break and never returned.
Tetiana Shkriabina told the Associated Press that she learned from witnesses that Russian forces had taken him into custody.
Months later, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed to Solovyov that Shkriabin had been jailed for “resisting the special military operation.” Solovyov stated that such a crime does not exist in Russia, and even if it did, Shkriabin would have been properly charged and investigated, but this has not occurred. The ministry declined to reveal his location.
In addition, when Solovyov challenged Shkriabin’s incarceration by filing a complaint with Russia’s Investigative Committee, the Committee acknowledged that no criminal investigations have been initiated against Shkriabin and that he is neither a suspect nor an accused.
Skhriabin, who turned 20 while in captivity, has not been designated a POW, according to Solovyov, who added, “His legal status is that of a hostage.”
The Defense and Interior Ministries of Russia did not reply to calls for comment.
On January 16, 2023, debris from a vocational school that served as a temporary deployment center for Russian forces is displayed.
Other examples resemble those of Shkriabin and Hannych disturbingly.
Iryna Horobtsova, an expert in information technology, was detained by Russian forces in the southern city of Kherson in May, when it was captured by Moscow. According to her sister, Elena Kornii, they entered her residence, seized a laptop, two cellphones, and many flash drives, and then abducted her. They assured her parents that she would return home that evening, but that did not occur.
Before being detained, Horobtsova remained in the city and spoke out against the war on social media, according to Kornii. She had participated in anti-Russia demonstrations and assisted locals by providing transportation to work and locating scarce drugs.
Kornii asserted that her sister had nothing to do with the military and that she had not broken any Ukrainian laws.
Emil Kurbedinov, Horobtsova’s attorney, stated that he felt Russian security services were conducting “purges of the disloyal” in Kherson.
The Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, informed him that she was still in jail. He was informed by the Interior Ministry in Moscow-annexed Crimea that Horobtsova was being held in a prison facility there. When Kurbedinov attempted to visit her, officials denied that such a prisoner existed.
On January 16, 2023, Ukrainian artillerymen prepare to fire an L119 howitzer towards Russian troops along a battle line in the Lugansk region.
As to why she was detained, police told Kurbedinov that “she resisted the special military operation, and a decision will be made once the special military operation is complete.”
Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of the captured city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, characterizes the detention of his deputy in the same terms: “completely arbitrary.”
Ivan Samoydyuk was apprehended by Russian troops in March, shortly after they seized the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, but no charges have been filed against him, according to Orlov.
The mayor remarked, “We’re not even sure if he’s alive!” Imagine the situation of regular Ukrainian residents if we cannot obtain clarity from the Russians regarding the fate of a deputy mayor.
According to Mykhailo Savva of the Expert Council of the Center for Civil Liberties, the Geneva Conventions permit a state to temporarily keep civilians in occupied regions; however, “as soon as the reason for the detention of this civilian disappears, this person must be released.”
“No special conditions, no trades, just release,” Savva stated, emphasizing that under international law, civilians cannot be considered POWs.
According to Yulia Gorbunova, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, international law bans a belligerent party from forcefully transporting a civilian to its own territory or area it controls, and doing so might be considered a war crime.
It is possible to exchange prisoners of war, but there is no legal procedure for exchanging noncombatants, according to Gorbunova, complicating efforts to liberate people held in custody.
However, since the start of the war, Kyiv has been able to bring some back home. The chief of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, stated on January 8 that 132 citizens were returned from Russian captivity in 2022.
Lubinets, the Ukrainian advocate for human rights, met with Tatyana Moskalkova, his Russian counterpart, this month.
He said he sent Moskalkova with a list of some of the 20,000 Ukrainian people he said Russia was holding, and “the Russian side agreed to determine where they are, in what condition, and for what reason they are being held.”
After receiving such information, “the procedure for their return” would be discussed, according to Lubinets.
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