For the past few days, disappearances have mysteriously multiplied. Local elected officials, journalists, activists and priests are kidnapped in turn in Ukrainian cities that have fallen into Russian hands. Some occasionally resurface, but for the most part the silence drags on, raising fears of the worst.
What happened to the coordinator of the demonstrations in Melitopol, Olga Gaisumova, kidnapped on March 12? Where is the journalist Oleh Baturin, who disappeared the same day in Kakhovka? What fate is reserved for the mayor of Dniproroudne, Yevgeniy Matveyev, kidnapped the next day? The elected official is one of three mayors kidnapped in less than a week in these regions of southern Ukraine. The other two, in Skadovsk and Melitopol, have since been released, but the list of missing continues to grow in the territories occupied by Russian forces, particularly in the Kherson region.
“It’s a mixture of targeted and random abductions”, observes political analyst Mattia Nelles. Their number remains unknown, but the testimonies collected by telephone by The world in occupied areas and those obtained by human rights defenders all show increasing repression. “We are receiving more and more worrying signals. Dozens of people have been contacting us for the past few days asking for help,” is alarmed Oleksandra Matviichouk, human rights lawyer and director of the Center for Civil Liberties in kyiv.
Communications are difficult and information is patchy. Since March 5, thousands of people have been demonstrating every day against the occupation in the Kherson region. Photos and videos posted on social networks show their determination, their slogans (“Putin, you’re screwed”, “fascists”) and Russian soldiers firing in the air to push back the crowds, but no act of violence by the occupiers is visible. And for good reason : “When this is the case, the soldiers confiscate the photo equipment, explains M.me Matviishuk. Today, many people are afraid. We only see the tip of the iceberg. »
“The Kherson region is Ukraine”
Some documents reach him despite everything. A photo, received a few hours earlier, shows the lacerated wrists of a resident of Kherson after her arrest. On another appears the swollen face of a woman. “A soldier checking his passport at a checkpoint asked him to say, ‘Kherson is Russia’. She replied “Kherson, this is Ukraine. “The soldier hit her in the face with his weapon”explains the human rights lawyer.
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