Civilian hostages: Ukraine needs an effective mechanism for their search and release

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, illegal abduction of civilians, torture and long-term deprivation of their liberty without any reason have become a common practice in the territories occupied by the Russian Federation. More than 20,000 civilians are listed in the Unified Register of Missing Persons, according to the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets. More than 30,000 cases of missing persons are recorded in the public database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Realizing that this is an international crime, Russia does not recognize civilian hostages and thereby blocks the process of their release. Relatives of prisoners also complain that on the Ukrainian side there is still no single state mechanism for finding and returning civilians.

Vita's husband, Oleg Lybid from Khmelnytskyi (name changed for security reasons), has been in Russian hostage for a year and a half, where he underwent torture and inhumane treatment. The wife does everything possible to find a husband.

On the first day of the full-scale invasion, 33-year-old Oleg was on a business trip to the Kyiv region. He worked in a small construction crew in the village of Dymer, south of Kyiv. Already on February 25, there were many Russian troops around the village, so the four construction workers decided to walk towards Makarov, because it was there that the transporter could pick them up and bring them home. The men hid in forests and fields, so they spent several days on the road.

"On the morning of March 3, they were captured by Russian soldiers of Buryat nationality near the village of Makariv: the boys were tied up, their mouths were taped shut, their hands were wrapped with ropes. One man from the brigade was released and told: "If the head of the village council Makarov comes out with a white flag, the other guys taken hostage will be released." In the end, the head of the village council did not go to the Russian military, so the man and three boys remained hostages," says Vita.

The woman reported the arrest of her husband to the police and also contacted human rights defenders.

"Russia has no right to detain civilians, it is a war crime. We constantly emphasize this, but the Russian army continues to violate the Geneva Conventions. As we can see, there are sometimes exchanges of civilians, however, according to international documents, civilian prisoners must be returned by Russia without exchanges," says Yulia Polekhina, a lawyer at the NGO "Human Rights Group "SICH".

On April 1, Oleg, one of the construction crew, was let go: he had severe hypothermia and frostbite in his limbs, which caused complications. It was from the freed prisoner that Vita heard the terrible details of the men's hostage conditions.

"In the first days of captivity, all four were kept tied and twisted for two days in the cold without shoes, food and water. The men were also doused with ice water... They are just inhumans, you can't say otherwise. As this guy told me, after a few days he couldn't feel whether he was alive or not. After that, everyone had frostbite, but he has the most complicated form."

Then the prisoners were transported to Russia through Belarus. In the pretrial detention center, men were beaten during interrogations. Vita says that the men were mistaken for Ukrainian soldiers.

"This guy's collarbones are broken. After being tortured in hostage, he cannot raise his hands, his palms are scarred, because the hot muzzles from the machine guns were pressed against his hands. Due to the frostbite of his legs, he developed complications and blood infection, and in the last days the man literally "rotted" in the cell, and the Russians mocked him: "If you are rotting, then rot away." At the last moment, he was taken to a Russian hospital, where one leg was amputated up to the knee, and the toes and heel of the other leg were amputated," the woman adds.

In Ukraine, the man underwent long-term treatment, which he then continued abroad. He still cannot recover from what he experienced and is not ready to talk openly about his experience of being held hostage.

"Recently, my friend's husband was exchanged: he stayed in the hospital for a month and died. The Russians are holding people hostage and abusing them to the point where people can't stand it. Everyone knows that this is a war crime, but the Russian Federation is angry about it, and it will not give back our civilians! I do not know what to do!" says the woman.

Vita is trying to get at least some information about her husband. Another released prisoner found the woman himself and told that her husband was with him in the Russian pre-trial detention center. "He says that Oleg lost a lot of weight due to constant torture, lack of normal food and hard work. He also has an injured hand. That's all I know. Where he is now and what happened to him is unknown," says Vita. She has been waiting for Oleg for almost a year and a half and continues to do everything possible to find a husband.

"Recently, I received a call from the Red Cross humanitarian movement and was informed that the Russian Federation confirmed for the second time: Oleg is in their hostage. The first time was in April 2022, the second time was on June 7, 2023. The man's status at the moment is a prisoner, as he has been confirmed by the aggressor state, but his exact whereabouts are still unknown," says Vita.

The human rights activist, who is helping Vita in her search for her husband, says that the big problem today is that relatives of civilian prisoners cannot get proper information from Ukrainian law enforcement agencies for months.

"For almost a year, Vita could not get an extract from the criminal proceedings! We had to send many requests so that it was finally issued to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) of the Kyiv region. Now the investigators do not get in touch, and we are faced with the problem, which has already been written about several times, –  the lack of information for relatives. However, according to Oleg, there is confirmation from the Central Investigation Agency of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) regarding his stay in Russian hostage. This is an isolated case, as Russia does not confirm the majority of civilian prisoners," comments lawyer Yulia Polekhina.

The Russian Federation mostly refuses to admit that it is detaining civilians. The aggressor country hides information to avoid responsibility for this crime, because there is no such thing as a civilian hostage in international law, and this is what blocks the processes of returning civilians.

"Civilian hostages are the most vulnerable. Also, we do not have reliable statistics, as relatives often do not contact law enforcement agencies. This applies to persons whose relatives are under occupation or abroad. It is extremely difficult for them to do this, but with the help of human rights defenders, it is possible," the lawyer adds.

Now Vita lives in the Lviv region, and her husband's case is being considered in the Kyiv region. Also, a woman does not always have the opportunity to leave her young son in order to go to various authorities to resolve issues by herself.

"As practice shows, it is always more effective for relatives to come to the institutions on their own to get information about the search, although it is again very difficult for those who live under occupation or abroad. Because of this, our country simply needs an effective mechanism for finding and releasing civilian hostages," Yulia Polekhina adds.

The lawyer helped the woman to submit documents to obtain an extract from the Unified Register of Persons Disappeared Under Special Circumstances and to the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine regarding the payment of annual financial aid for families and released prisoners in the amount of UAH 100,000. However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reported in a letter dated July 7, 2023 that there is currently no information about Oleg in the Unified Register of Persons Disappeared Under Special Circumstances...

According to the lawyer, this should not happen, so she continues to help Vita and prepares documents for reporting to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

"Receiving a decision from the Committee may take a long time, and there is also the possibility that the Committee may at any stage find such an application unfounded. Therefore, it is important to prepare all the necessary documents for the application. Based on the results of consideration of individual applications, the United Nations Committee makes recommendations for the state government. These recommendations may contain requirements for review of the applicant's case, payment of any compensation (without specifying a specific amount in the decision). Also, thanks to the submission of documents to the Committee, we inform international structures about the war crimes of the Russian Federation," Yulia Polekhina explains.

Not only human rights defenders talk about the lack of a single state mechanism for the search and return of civilians. Relatives of civilian hostages are also rallying, holding events and, together with human rights defenders, demanding that the Ukrainian authorities create a working group that will deal with all issues and problems related to civilian hostages. The working group was announced at the end of 2022, but has not yet started work. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine should make amendments to Resolution No. 257 so that the representatives of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War are finally given the authority to deal with the return of civilian hostages. All this is extremely important, because our country really needs working algorithms for the return of civilians.

Read this article in Ukrainian and russian.