In Ukraine, families are living with the nightmare of vanished relatives

For the past month, we have been attempting to track down Ukrainian civilians who have vanished during the war in Ukraine, writes Bel Trew

Sunday 31 July 2022 14:46 BST
Vanishing civilians is one of the consequences of any conflict, but in Ukraine, this appears to be widespread – and, in some instances, deliberate
Vanishing civilians is one of the consequences of any conflict, but in Ukraine, this appears to be widespread – and, in some instances, deliberate (AFP via Getty Images)

Four months ago, in the mud and blood and blasted haze left by the Russian retreat in Ukraine, we stumbled into a town where we discovered that men had been abducted, tortured, detained and, in some cases, disappeared.

This was Trostyanets, in Sumy region, along the border with Russia. It was under occupation by Moscow’s forces for a month. In the town’s railway station, encircled by a moonscape of beached tanks and empty ammunition boxes, survivors took us to an underground torture chamber below the passenger terminal where they had been held. Their blood still smeared the walls.

Residents and the police force said that while several people survived that experience, there were still several others who had been “disappeared” during that time and were still missing.

Incredibly, in the months since, one of them reappeared in a prisoner swap with news of others. They had also been abducted from areas across Ukraine, and were held in a cell with him in Russia. We were able to find one of his cellmates’ relatives, whom he hadn’t been able to find, and give them news of their missing son for the first time.

For the past month, we have been attempting to track down Ukrainian civilians who have vanished during President Putin’s war in Ukraine. In two cases, we connected survivors with those still looking, ensuring those families got new information about their missing loved ones. We followed families, officials, charities and forensic doctors in that nightmare process of trying to find out what happened to the sons, daughters, husbands, wives and parents who left home one day and never came back.

The authorities in Ukraine are at the moment handling 12,000 cases of missing Ukrainian citizens. The officials and citizens involved in those searches say it could take years to find out what happened – and that, in some instances, they may never find the truth.

Those people may be dead, still trapped under tonnes of rubble or buried in the countless makeshift graves that scar the country. But they also may be swallowed up by a string of sometimes quite secretive prisons in Russia and occupied territory.

One of them is the prison in Russia where the man from Trostyanets was held. Another is the prison in Olenivka, which was blown up on Friday in an attack that killed 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war and wounded 73 others, according to Russia’s defence ministry.

Both Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for the explosion: Russia has accused Ukraine of hitting it with a US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to stop soldiers talking about the alleged crimes Moscow accuses them of.

Ukraine’s armed forces denied responsibility, saying Russian artillery had targeted the prison to cover up the alleged poor treatment, torture and crimes committed there. Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday that Russia had committed a war crime, and called for international condemnation.

Moscow has since invited the United Nations and the Red Cross to investigate the site. The Kremlin has repeatedly and vehemently denied that it is arbitrarily holding people or using torture, and accused Kyiv of staging “a monstrous forgery” in the areas recently liberated from occupation by its forces to besmirch Russia’s reputation.

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Whatever happened in Olenivka, this is the worst nightmare for families who believe their sons and daughters are being held there. I spoke to a sister of one of the POWs, who said she was trawling through Russian Telegram channels showing videos of the aftermath of the blast to try to see if the body of her sibling was among the corpses being laid out.

Another – a woman whose husband she believes is being held there – said she was waiting by her phone for the call she dreads the most: the one informing her he is dead.

Russia says it has sent the UN a list of the victims’ names. It is more than likely that some of those families will be learning for the first time the fate of their vanished loved ones.

This week, we will be publishing a piece delving into Olenivka, speaking to survivors of this secretive prison, and those who believe their loved ones are probably still being held there but do not know for sure. It is part of a series on the missing people swallowed up in the rage of war.

Vanishing civilians is one of the horrible consequences of any conflict, but in Ukraine, this appears to be widespread – and, in some instances, deliberate.

We hope this work will shed light on this horrible consequence of this war. And encourage those being arbitrarily or unlawfully detained to be freed.

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