‘Kidnappings are part of Russia’s strategy’

• Chiem Balduk

  Foreign publisher

The Russian army systematically kidnaps civilians from occupied parts of Ukraine. Hundreds of Ukrainian administrators, journalists, activists and lawyers are currently missing. “It’s systematic and part of Russian policy. There must have been lists of who to arrest.”

So says Oleksandra Romantsova, executive director of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties. Her organization is picking up today the Nobel Peace Prize together with two partner organizations from Belarus and Russia. This week it was In the Netherlands and talked to NOS.

His organization collects evidence and reports on war crimes committed by the Russian army. Especially the so-called sees it civil society target is civil society. “There are currently more than 700 people known to be missing, but these are just the cases that have been reported to us.”

Among the missing are local politicians, writers and priests. “Any individual who can bring together and influence the people around him is a danger.” It comes as no surprise to Romantsova that they are targeted. “Russia has suppressed all forms of civil liberties and rights nationwide, so it’s no surprise that they are also trying in Ukraine.”

The same pattern was visible in Russian military operations in Syria, Georgia and Chechnya, says the human rights defender.

Abducted civilians often end up not in regular prisons, but in unfamiliar “illegal” prisons, according to Romantsova. “There they are being pressured in the hope that he will ‘recover’. He has to ‘see’ that the Russian operation in Ukraine is good and, for example, record a video of regret.” Those who refuse disappear from the face of the earth, says the activist.

Three examples of missing citizens of Ukraine:

Of civil society it’s quite big in Ukraine, unlike in Russia, Romantsova says. “Virtually every citizen has become a committed citizen since the Maidan revolution.” She also decided to devote herself to her country. When the first Maidan protests came in the fall of 2013, she quit her job at a bank and became active at the Center for Civil Liberties. You have since reported war crimes in eastern Ukraine.

Today’s war crimes are no different from crimes of the past, Romantsova says. “Since 2014, we have witnessed the illegal detention by Russians of Ukrainian citizens, for example members of Crimean Tatar organizations.”

Since the large-scale Russian invasion on February 24, crimes have taken place on a larger scale, but his organization sees the same method of work everywhere. “We know about Bocha, Irpin and Izhum, but in smaller places exactly the same thing happens. This means that we can conclude that it is systematic.”

Indicates the involvement of Belarus. His organization has multiple evidence of kidnapped citizens transferred to the puppet state of Russia.

Russia and Ukraine regularly exchange prisoners of war, but they are almost always soldiers. Detained administrators, journalists and activists hardly qualify to appear on the “negotiation list,” says Romantsova. “Because they are kept out of regular prisons, we cannot send them Russian lawyers who have previously worked with our organization.”

The organization can do more meaningful work in the liberated areas. For example, his team is now conducting research in the recently reconquered city of Kherson. In the torture chambers found, traces of missing Ukrainians are being sought, but this is made more difficult by the fact that the Russian occupier has blown up parts of the detention centers. “If we don’t find the missing dead or alive, it means they were taken to another area under Russian control.”

At least eleven torture chambers have been discovered in liberated Kherson:

This reinforces Romantsova’s belief that negotiations with Russia are not a good idea. Ukraine must keep fighting, she says. “Every day parts of Ukraine remain occupied, new war crimes are committed. When the shooting has stopped, there is no peace, there will be peace only when all areas are liberated.”

The award of the Nobel Prize came as a surprise to Romantsova. She sees it as a recognition of the importance of the work of human rights activists. “If human rights are violated and there is no reaction, but people mainly think about the good price of oil, sooner or later it will lead to war. That’s why our work is so important.”