In the occupied Kherson region, the Russian military is moving Ukrainian civilian hostages and prisoners of war in an unknown direction.
The statement was published on October 21 by the head of the ZMINA Center for Human Rights Tetyana Pechonchyk.
The occupying power justifies such movements with the need for "evacuation", but does not provide any information about the new places of imprisonment to relatives of the prisoners.
Currently, itʼs about hundreds of people who were held in various locations in Kherson region. As of October 20, it is known that prisoners are being moved in an unknown direction from:
- Kherson pre-trial detention center (10 Perekopska street);
- "Northern Correctional Colony (No. 90)" (Kherson, 234 Nekrasova Street);
- building of ITT No. 1 in Kherson region (Kherson, 3 Teploenergetykiv Street).
"This will most likely lead to the loss by human rights defenders and families of prisoners of the already limited information about Ukrainians in Russian captivity," Tetyana Pechonchyk explained.
In addition, according to her, most of the prisoners have serious wounds and health problems after torture and long stay in unsuitable premises and inhumane conditions.
Human rights defenders ask Ukrainian and international institutions to take the processes of transportation of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages under special control, record their movements and demand from Russia to provide information about the direction and purpose of such movements, places and conditions of their further detention.
- On the evening of October 18, the occupied Kherson region informed about the "organized transfer of the civilian population to the left bank of the Dnipro River". The commander of Russian troops in the war against Ukraine, General Surovikin, said that further actions regarding Kherson will depend on the "difficult military-tactical situation, difficult decisions cannot be ruled out."
- On October 16, it became known that the Russians began evacuating "state institutions" from the Kherson region to the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea.