Human rights activists reveal how many Ukrainian civilians are in Russian captivity
To date, 950 civilians are known to be in Russian captivity. They are being held in the temporarily occupied territories.
Representatives of the Media Initiative for Human Rights and the NGO Civilians in Captivity said this during a presentation of a map with places of detention of civilians and prisoners of war, Ukrinform reported.
According to the Ministry of Reintegration, 950 civilians are in detention facilities as of the end of February. Our list, which we maintain at the same time with the support of the Citizens in Captivity NGO, contains approximately the same number of people. We cannot say to what extent the lists coincide, as state information is not available," Tetyana Katrichenko, coordinator of the IHRC, said.
It is noted that experts worked on the map for a year. They monitored various resources, including social networks, to identify missing people. At the same time, experts interviewed those released from captivity. According to IIHR, 948 hostages - civilians on the TOT and in Russia - have been identified.
Experts have identified a hundred places of detention for civilians and servicemen - from Donetschina and Kherson Region to Irkutsk Region. Prisons have also been localised in the de-occupied territory - Kyiv region, Sumy region.
Much of Ukraine is still occupied. There are detentions there every day and we find new places of detention. So we cannot say that the current map is a complete picture of places of detention. However, the most important thing is that we were able to talk to witnesses from all these places, collect and document these testimonies for law enforcers," Katirichenko stressed.
According to her, new prisons are discovered every day, so the total number could be several hundred, and the number of hostages could be up to 15,000.