“He has never seen his son”: Ukrainian civilian Vadym Burdiienko held by Russia for more than three years
Russian occupying forces abducted 31-year-old Vadym Burdiienko, a resident of Donske, Donetsk Oblast, from his home on 2 April 2022. In 2024, he was unlawfully held in Kirov Penal Colony No. 33, but his current whereabouts are unknown, his sister, Svitlana Mazur, told ZMINA.
Photo credit: ZMINAShe said that on 2 April 2022, occupying forces broke into the house where Burdiienko lived with his pregnant wife, searched the house and took him away.
“They turned the whole house upside down. It is unclear what they were looking for. They took my brother, along with his phone and passport“, Mazur said.
On the night of 6 April 2022, Russian occupying forces called his wife on Viber and showed Vadym on a video call. He told her he was alive and that she should not worry about him.
In 2023, a video appeared on social media in which Burdiienko appealed to the Ukrainian authorities to secure his release from captivity.
On 19 July 2024, Svitlana was contacted by a former detainee who had shared a cell with Vadym. He said that Vadym was being held in Kirov Penal Colony No. 33. However, there is no official confirmation.
“He said that Vadym had received a letter from his wife informing him of the birth of their son, whom he has never seen. There was a period when the occupiers allowed his family to correspond with him, but it did not last long“, Svitlana Mazur said.
Mazur added that her greatest wish is for her brother and all civilians to be returned as soon as possible.
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“I don’t know where to turn or who to appeal to in order to get them out. Every door seems closed to detainees held in Russian captivity. There has been complete silence for more than three years,” she said.
The Human Rights Centre ZMINA, along with Ukrainian and international partners, documents enforced disappearances, detentions, and abductions of civilians in the temporarily occupied territories. If your relatives have gone missing or you fear they may have been abducted, please contact us at ys@zmina.ua. Our representative will get in touch with you.
The information provided, subject to the applicant’s consent, will be used in submissions to national and international investigative bodies, as well as to international organisations for inclusion in periodic reports, including the UN Committee against Torture, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, the International Criminal Court, and others, to support the documentation and investigation of war crimes committed in Ukraine and help bring those responsible to justice.
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