CrimeaSOS: at least 6 cases of enforced disappearances were recorded in Crimea during 2024

In 2024, CrimeaSOS recorded at least 6 new cases of enforced disappearances: 2 men and 4 women. According to available information, FSB officers were directly involved in all six cases. This was reported by CrimeaSOS analyst Yevhenii Yaroshenko.

“In 4 cases, after searches, FSB officers took the victims to an unknown destination, refusing to disclose their legal status or whereabouts to their relatives”, –Yevhenii Yaroshenko noted. 

To date, 67 known victims of violent abduction have been recorded during the entire period of the occupation of Crimea. The most recent known victim is Lera Dzhemilova, a resident of the Dzhankoi area of the peninsula, who was arrested for 15 days by occupation security forces after a search in May 2024. Lera’s whereabouts remain unknown.   

In total, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, 104 cases of enforced disappearances have been recorded in Crimea since the beginning of the occupation, including 21 people considered missing. 

Since 2014, in March alone, the number of victims of enforced disappearances has reached 23 people. Almost all of them were pro-Ukrainian activists who opposed the illegal “referendum.” One of them was Reshat Ametov who staged a solo protest against the russian occupation in Simferopol on March 3rd. That same day, he was abducted by members of the illegal armed group “Crimean Self-Defense Forces”, and a few days later Reshat’s body was discovered bearing signs of severe torture.  

The fate of Valerii Vashchuk and Ivan Bondarets, who were abducted on March 7, 2014, as well as Vasyl Chernysh, who disappeared on March 15 of the same year, remains unknown.  

“Nearly all of these 23 cases involve members of the “Crimean Self-Defence Forces”. The enforced disappearances in March 2014 suggest this was a deliberate policy of terror by Russia or its proxy groups against supporters of Ukraine’s territorial integrity”, –CrimeaSOS analyst said. 

As of January 2025, we reported 66 cases of enforced disappearance in Crimea since the occupation began.  

We remind you that enforced disappearance is characterized by deprivation of liberty against a person’s will, involvement of state officials, at least indirectly, through tacit consent, refusal to acknowledge the fact of deprivation of liberty and to report the fate and whereabouts of the person. These cases violate customary international humanitarian law and cannot be justified under any circumstances, including martial law.