Russia abducts at least 17 Crimean residents, holds them incommunicado for months – Irade human rights initiative
Russian forces have abducted at least 17 Crimean residents in recent months, with some victims held incommunicado for up to 10 months on “high treason” charges, while others remain missing with their whereabouts unknown, according to data from a non-public report by the Irade human rights initiative obtained by ZMINA. Monitoring conducted by the Irade between February 2025 and May 2025 reveals.
ZMINA does not reveal some cases, names, and other identification data of Ukrainian citizens abducted in temporarily occupied Crimea due to safety reasons.
On February 24, 2025, a resident of Yevpatoria disappeared. The Irade reported that Russian forces searched his house on February 20, after which they took the Ukrainian citizen to an unknown location, and since then, nothing is known about his whereabouts.
On the same date, on February 24, 2025, another resident of Yevpatoria disappeared. On February 12, Russian forces detained her together with her sister on the street and took both to the FSB building. Russian forces subsequently released the sister, and nothing is known about the fate of the other woman since then. The illegitimate “police” on the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula refuse to search for her, and the FSB denies pursuing criminal proceedings against the woman.
On March 22, 2025, a resident of the temporarily occupied Sevastopol disappeared. No further details are available at this time.
On March 29, 2025, the Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov, stated that Russia had abducted Tetiana Malyar, her brother, son, and daughter. According to the information provided, Russian forces conducted searches at the residences of these people on the night of March 21-22, after which they detained all of them and kept them in an unidentified location for a week, and then suspected them of a criminal offense under Article 275 of the Criminal Code of Russia, “High Treason,” and imprisoned them. The Irade representatives have not yet verified this information at the time of reporting.
On May 7, 2025, another Crimean resident was missing, the Irade reported. According to the human rights initiative, the woman went to visit friends in another city on May 5 and lost contact with her family. On May 7, Russian forces searched the house where she lived, and advised her relatives not to draw public attention to the situation. However, her actual whereabouts and legal status were unknown for several weeks, and only after authorities made the abduction public did her family receive confirmation that Russia had opened a criminal case against her on charges of “high treason.”
On May 21, 2025, the disappearance of Serhiy Hrishchenkov, born in 1967, became known. He was detained by the FSB on May 6, 2025, and since then, nothing is known about his fate.
Serhiy HrishchenkovOn May 23, 2025, FSB officers abducted an elderly man from his home. They held him for 12 hours in the FSB building, incommunicado and without a lawyer, and without an explanation of the legal grounds for his detention. All this time, they questioned him about the purpose of his trip to Türkiye, his ties to the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, etc. Then, FSB officers released the elderly man, leaving him to get back home to temporarily occupied Saki City on his own.
The Irade also reported that little is known about the fate of the three women, E.Y. Ablyazova, L.S. Gaidai, and T.N. Pavlenko, whom FSB officers took to an unknown destination on March 27.
Unofficial information received in December 2024 indicated that Russia is holding Gaidai in detention center No. 2 in temporarily occupied Crimea, without charges and incommunicado.
Moreover, there is still no information about the fate of Farhad Soliev and Server Aliev, who were abducted on November 3, 2023, by FSB officers.
Farhad SolievLawyers are searching for these people. They have no information about their procedural status and whereabouts.
Russian occupying authorities charged Lera Dzhemilova, abducted in May 2024, with “high treason.” Russia has held her incommunicado for 10 months.
The Irade elaborated that the prohibition of taking hostages from the civilian population in occupied territory is one of the basic, unconditional prohibitions enshrined in articles 34 and 147 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. In addition, Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court classifies illegal imprisonment and taking hostages as war crimes. Moreover, human rights advocates noted that large-scale and systemic enforced disappearances constitute crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute.
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