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80-year-old local kidnapped by Russians in Kharkiv region
Sofia Kalan
The town of Balaklia was liberated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on September 10. The crimes of the Russian military, which were committed there during the six-month occupation, are identical to the tortures and murders in Bucha and Irpin. As of the end of September, the police documented 582 murders by Russia in the […]
Friday, 7 October 2022, 10:36

The town of Balaklia was liberated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on September 10. The crimes of the Russian military, which were committed there during the six-month occupation, are identical to the tortures and murders in Bucha and Irpin. As of the end of September, the police documented 582 murders by Russia in the de-occupied territories of Kharkiv region. According to the results of the exhumation of the bodies of the mass graves near Izium, 212 dead women, more than 190 men, five children, 22 Ukrainian servicemen and 12 more bodies, the sex of which has not been identified, were found. Besides the brutal murders, the occupiers kidnapped civilians with pro-Ukrainian views, whose fate is not known.

When fleeing from Kharkiv region, Russian occupiers stole trucks and cars, kidnapped Ukrainian citizens.

On September 13, the information appeared on the Internet about the search for an 80-year-old man who was kidnapped by the occupiers along with his car in the village of Savyntsi near Balaklia.

‘Bukvy’ has talked with the man’s granddaughter.

On the day of the liberation of Balaklia, in the village of Savyntsi, frightened by the imminent defeat Russian occupiers broke into the houses of the residents in search of civilian clothes and transport.

On September 10, at 7 am, two Russian military ran to the house of Anatolii Semka, born in 1942. According to the granddaughter, they were brought by a pro-Russian neighbor who helped the occupiers in every possible way, even on the last day of their stay in the village.

‘My grandfather spent half a year in the occupation, kept us constantly informed of events, called us from the neighboring district, because the mobile connection was only there. But after September 10 and until now, we have not received any news about him’, the granddaughter says.

He was reportedly captured by the fleeing occupiers and made to drive the car. The family of the 80-year-old man does not stop searching for him. The granddaughter says that they tried to track the whereabouts of the abducted by the location in the phone, but the device has been out of range since the first day of his disappearance.

This is far from a single case of abduction of a civilian, just an ordinary person, not a military. Immediately after the liberation of Balaklia, cases of the disappearance of their parents, grandfathers, brothers, mostly men, began to be published en masse on social networks.

Relatives of the kidnapped people are constantly appealing with hope to the relevant organizations – the UN, the Red Cross, the SBU, the Ukrainian and European parliaments. However, Russia does not pay any attention to the international regulations, laws and customs of war.

Tags: de-occupied territories, Kharkiv region, kidnapping, Russian war crimes