Russia Selenskyj: Several mayors in Russian prisons
According to information from Kiev, thousands of Ukrainian civilians are in Russian prisons. "There are currently at least six mayors and community leaders in Russian captivity," said President Volodymyr Zelenskyi in a video address for a human rights conference in Kiev. These are among thousands of others, some of whom have been imprisoned since 2014. 3,767 Ukrainians, mainly prisoners of war, have so far returned from Russian captivity.
05.12.2024, 19:25
SDA
At the same conference, Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinez spoke of "more than 16,000" civilians in Russian custody. "The number will be much higher when we liberate the Ukrainian territories," said Lubinez. Only then would it be possible to carry out an on-the-spot check.
President remembers Matveyev, who stood up to tanks
In his speech, Zelensky recalled the fate of the mayor of the town of Dniprorudne in the Zaporizhzhya region of southern Ukraine, Yevheniy Matveyev. "He was captured in March 2022 while trying to help the people of his community," said the President. Matveyev became famous at the beginning of the war when he confronted a Russian armored column.
According to the regional governor of Zaporizhzhya, Ivan Fedorov, his body was recently handed over to Ukraine. "He was held captive by the occupiers for two years and eight months and was tortured," wrote Fedorov on Telegram, who himself was arrested by the Russian occupiers as mayor of Melitopol at the beginning of the war and was later released.
Among the missing mayors is Ihor Kolychaev, the then mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, which was occupied by Russia for several months. According to media reports, after his arrest he was last seen in a prison in Simferopol on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for more than two and a half years. The Russian occupying forces in particular are repeatedly accused of human rights violations.
