Mayor of a Ukrainian city died in captivity in Russia. Human rights organisations issued a statement

The legitimate mayor of the city of Dniprorudne in the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevheniy Matveyev, has been killed in Russian captivity, the head of the Zaporizhzhya regional military administration Ivan Fedorov informed. According to Fedorov, Matveyev’s body was transferred to Ukraine within an exchange.

Dniprorudne was occupied by Russia at the end of February 2022. The Zmina Human Rights Centre reported that residents, led by Matveyev, tried to prevent a Russian military convoy from entering the city. In the first days of the occupation, Matveyev tried to ensure the most urgent humanitarian needs and evacuation of the residents of Dniprorudne.

The Russian military detained Matveyev on 13 March 2022 at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city.

According to Zmina, Matveyev was held in Russia. The circumstances of his death are unknown.

The human rights organisation noted that several other representatives of Ukrainian municipalities are still being held captive in Russia. These include the former and current legitimate mayors of Kherson, Volodymyr Mykolayenko and Ihor Kolykhayev, the mayor of Hola Prystan in the Kherson region Oleksandr Babych, a member of the city council of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region Mykola Masliy, and a member of the Novokakhovka city council, Ihor Protokovilo.

Also in 2022, Russians kidnapped Anatoliy Siryi, the head of the village of Novi Borovychi in the Chernihiv region; his whereabouts are unknown.

Several other civilian and military citizens of Ukraine died in Russian captivity this year. In particular, on 19 September 2024, Viktoria Roshchyna, 27, a journalist, who was captured by the Russians in early August 2023, died under unclear circumstances. Her father was informed of her death in October 2024; her body has not yet been returned to Ukraine.

Zmina and other Ukrainian human rights organisations issued a statement in response to the news of Matveyev’s death. They called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to identify the places where Ukrainian citizens are being held and to monitor these places, to guarantee the observance of prisoners’ rights, including the non-use of torture and the provision of medical care.

They also called on the UN, the OSCE and the Council of Europe to monitor and report violations of the rights of captured Ukrainian citizens in places of detention, to facilitate the investigation of war crimes committed by Russians, and to demand that Russia release captured Ukrainian citizens.

Human rights organisations also called on national law enforcement agencies and the International Criminal Court to investigate human rights violations in the occupied territories of Ukraine and “pay attention to the systematic persecution of civilians, which, according to experts from the OSCE Moscow Mechanism, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Violations in Ukraine, and Ukrainian human rights organisations, has signs of a crime against humanity”.