“They subject our people to terrible torture and force them to confess to fictitious crimes. Crimes they did not commit”

Transcript from the 20.04.2024

Hello and thank you for your invitation. My name is Liusiena Zinovkina. I came to Germany two years ago when my home town of Melitopol was occupied by Russian soldiers. My husband’s name is Kostiantyn Zinovkin, he is 34 years old and has been in Russian captivity for a year. My husband is a civilian, not a soldier – he was kidnapped on the street by representatives of the Russian FSB (secret service) in our hometown. We didn’t know anything about him for almost half a year, I thought he was no longer alive. Then my husband was shown on the main Russian channel in a propaganda programme. The Russians call him a terrorist, a zombie and a sick person just because he claims that Ukraine is independent and Russia is a terrorist country.

 

Our story is just one of thousands. Since 2014, Russia has begun detaining civilians in violation of the third and fourth articles of the Geneva Convention. On the territory of Russia, lawyers cannot or do not want to protect Ukrainians whom Russia has illegally arrested. My husband has a state lawyer by agreement, but he does not protect his interests, he does whatever Russia tells him. He does not contact me, ignores all my messages and does not give any information about the legal case or at least about Kostiantyn’s whereabouts.

Kostiantyn is being transported from pre-trial detention centre to pre-trial detention centre and I have been looking for him for months – e.g. he is in Mariupol at the moment, but tomorrow that could change again. Obviously he is waiting for a show trial in which he will be sentenced to 15 or 20 years in a strict colony. There are hundreds of such Ukrainians, hundreds of people who are sentenced by Russians just for being Ukrainians. They subject our people to terrible torture and force them to confess to fictitious crimes. Crimes they have not committed.

 

Kostiantyn Zinovkin, portrayed as a criminal in Russian state media

There is another category of abducted civilians that Russia does not confirm, although witnesses and eyewitnesses know for sure that they have also been abducted. In such cases, we say that a person is in the grey zone. It is impossible to determine the exact number of missing persons and what fate they will suffer. It is difficult to predict.

We have no choice but to turn to the world community to help us. We ourselves cannot withstand this enemy, only the intervention of a third country will allow the liberation of civilian hostages without conditions and without exchange. Our relatives can return home only if the world community knows about them, if the world community calls on Russia to release them.

I ask for your help, I appeal for the right to live, for the observance of human rights, because everyone has the right to life, liberty and personal integrity. No one should be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. No one should be subjected to unjustified arrest and illegal detention. Such people have been in Russian prisons since 2014, they have no more time to wait.

We must act immediately!

 

Switlana Sherban, wife of a Ukrainian civilian prisoner, reports

“I believe that the international community and foreign politicians should get involved in this painful issue of captured civilians and take it to the whole world, denounce it on all political platforms, because Ukraine is completely ignored by Russia. Russia has no right to detain civilians who had no weapons in their hands, who were abominably abducted from their own homes, thrown behind bars and mercilessly mistreated. My husband has been held by them for over two years. I found him myself. I have informed the ICRC, the Russian prison authorities, the Russian Ministry of Defence and the Russian Human Rights Ombudswoman, Tatyana Moskalkova, about his chronic illnesses and the fact that his detention is life-threatening. However, I received no response. It was not until a year later that the ICRC confirmed his detention. Civilian prisoners are held like prisoners of war. They are brutally mistreated. The world must learn about this terrible crime and publicise it as widely as possible. The civilian prisoners must return home immediately.”

 

Olena Tsyhipa, wife of a Ukrainian civilian prisoner, reports

“Hello, my name is Olena Tsyhipa. I am the wife of civilian prisoner Sergiy Tsyhipa. He is a journalist and writer and was abducted from the occupied city of Nova Kakhovka on 12 March 2022 because he was reporting on all the events in the occupied city on his Facebook page. As he was very disruptive to the occupiers, he was kidnapped and sentenced to 13 years in a strict penal colony for espionage. His trial was a fabrication. Sergiy simply did what every citizen of Ukraine should do: Tell the whole world the truth about what is happening in the occupied cities of Ukraine. I ask you very much to take over a political godparenthood for my husband. I ask you to help me to bring my husband Sergiy Tsyhipa back to his family, to his children and grandchildren. I would also like to address you on behalf of all Ukrainian women who are waiting for their fathers, husbands, brothers and sisters from Russian captivity. I ask you very much to develop an effective mechanism for the return of civilian prisoners, because all relatives are waiting for their family members, talk about them wherever they can and do everything in our power. Help us to bring our loved ones home.”