CrimeaSOS: the occupiers in the Kherson region abduct specific categories of persons
6 / 03 / 2023
Five categories of civilians are most often captured by the occupiers in the Kherson region. Oleksii Tilnenko, the Head of the Board of CrimeaSOS, talked about this on the air of Ukrainian Radio.
“First of all, they [the occupiers – ed.], of course, hunted for current or former employees of the security and defence sphere: former ATO participants, former military personnel, former employees of law enforcement agencies, special services. Or current employees, or, for example, people who were members of the Territorial Defence, as well as relatives of this category”, — said Oleksii Tilnenko.
The second category of people captured by the russians are people with social capital: village and city mayors, deputies, entrepreneurs, teachers and doctors. The third category is opinion leaders: activists, journalists, bloggers, volunteers and clergy. The fourth category is those detained as a result of filtering. Such people can be suspected or accused of assisting Ukraine. The fifth category of hostages is accidental victims.
For the most part, the occupiers detain those who can still influence opinion of locals.
The situation with the provision of legal and other assistance to civilian hostages in the newly occupied territories of Ukraine and in the occupied Crimea is significantly different.
“If you compare the newly occupied territories and the temporarily occupied Crimea, of course, the chance of legal protection is greater in Crimea. Because on the occupied parts of the territory of the Kherson region or Zaporizhzhia region, there is no talk of legal protection at all. Meaning, there is no protection at all. People are constantly tortured there. It is impossible to provide them with legal or other assistance”, —Oleksii Tilnenko added.
We remind you that CrimeaSOS will provide available information about victims of politically motivated persecution to the National Information Bureau (NIB) under the Ministry of Reintegration to update the registers of civilian hostages.