Ukrainian journalists, public officials, civil rights activists and even civilians who are vocal against the invasion of their country are being arbitrarily detained by Russian forces. The tactic is being used to instil fear in local communities, some say, with forced detentions lasting anywhere from a day to two weeks.
It was an icy cold morning on March 23 when Russian forces knocked on Svetlana Zalizetskaya’s front door in Melitopol in southeast Ukraine. Hoping to find her inside, they came face to face with her elderly parents instead. “I wasn’t home at the time,” she told FRANCE 24. The three armed men searched the place, turning the house “upside down”, and took her 75-year-old father to an unknown location.
Zalizetskaya, the director of local newspaper Holovna Gazeta Melitopolya and news website RIA-Melitopol, had fled the city days earlier. “I was intimidated by Galina Danilchenko,” she said, referring to the pro-Russian acting mayor who replaced Ivan Fedorov, who was himself abducted on March 11 and eventually released in exchange for nine Russian conscripts.
“[Danilchenko] asked me to become a propagandist for Russia and to start reporting in support of the occupation. She tried to convince me by promising a great career in Moscow,” said Zalizetskaya, who refused the proposal and packed her things to leave the city for fear of reprisal. A few days later, she received a call and found that her father had been taken hostage.
“Their demand was clear: he would be returned if I gave myself in.” But Zalizetskaya turned down the Russian proposal once again, “so they demanded that I shut down RIA-Melitopol”.
On March 25, two days after her father’s abduction, Zalizetskaya posted on Facebook announcing the transfer of her news website to third parties “in exchange for evacuation” and “in territory controlled by Ukraine” who, according to her, “provide…
Source : france24
