"They looked at their phone: 'Oh, kid, you've made it!'" A volunteer detained while leaving Mariupol has been held for four months
Source: MIPL
Author: Artur Prikhnо
Serhiy Tabachuk is a volunteer from Dnipro who, in March of this year, volunteered to evacuate civilians from Mariupol. But at the very first Russian checkpoint, he was detained by Russian military personnel.
According to unverified sources, the volunteer may be being held in a penal colony in Olenivka, Volnovakha District, Donetsk Oblast. This is the same facility where another volunteer from Dnipro—Igor Talalay—was previously held while undergoing “filtration” at the penal colony.
Igor Talalay: Three Months of “Filtration” in the Torture Chambers of Occupied Donetsk
Region
Tabachuk’s family does not know why he was detained. The International Institute for Human Rights (IIHR) shares what is known about Serhiy and his disappearance.
He helped children
with cancer
“Serhiy is a refined and creative person; he’s completely unsuited for military service. Sometimes he played laser tag with me—that’s the only time he ever wore camouflage,” says Vyacheslav, Serhiy’s brother, in a comment to the MIPL.
For several years, Serhiy helped children—working with them in cancer clinics after their chemotherapy treatments.
“The children saw him as a friend or even a father,” says Vyacheslav. “He treats them with great care. Before the war, Serhiy also led hiking trips for tourists. And if there were children on the hike, they’d all gather around him. He’d immediately find something to entertain them with and have fun with them himself.”
He played wind instruments, organized celebrations, and made costumes—these were the things Serhiy did in peacetime.
Serhiy Tabachuk
Volunteering already took up a large part of his life back then. Vyacheslav says: Serhiy never put his own interests first, but always tried to help those around him. The outbreak of full-scale war only confirmed this.
He took out a loan to save people
“Right after the invasion began, Serhiy called me and asked what I was going to do. We found some guys who were delivering tires to checkpoints. We worked with them. Then we loaded sand, and later Serhiy became a volunteer at the train station—welcoming displaced people. He was right at home there,” says Vyacheslav.
Eventually, the need for volunteers at the train station disappeared, so Serhiy began looking for people involved in evacuation efforts. Volunteering, his brother says, took a toll on him, especially financially—there were no jobs at the time.
Serhiy took out a loan of 2,000 hryvnias, filled up his car, and began preparing for a trip to Mariupol to evacuate people. He loaded the car with all sorts of necessary supplies—from food to sleeping bags.
He didn’t tell his family that he was going to Mariupol—he was afraid they would try to stop him. His family found out about it on the day Serhiy went missing from other volunteers.
It’s important to note one detail from Serhiy’s background. When Russia first began its aggression against Ukraine, back in 2014, Serhiy was working as a construction worker in Moscow. At that time, he and other workers who were with him were arrested. Serhiy was out of contact for nearly two months. His family knew nothing about who was holding him captive or why. Eventually, he was deported to Ukraine, and a stamp was placed in his passport barring him from re-entering Russia.
Serhiy’s brother speculates that this may be one of the reasons why he has been held hostage for so long.
The Russians didn’t like something on his phone
In mid-March, volunteers formed two convoys to go to Mariupol to pick up people. The first convoy left on March 18. It included Igor Talalay, mentioned above. The second convoy, in which Serhiy was traveling, set out early in the morning on March 19. They were supposed to meet in Zaporizhzhia, but due to organizational shortcomings, they missed each other—the first convoy was already in Mangush at that time, a few kilometers from Mariupol.
The fact that the convoys were unable to meet meant that they traveled to Mariupol via different routes. The first convoy successfully entered the city and began the evacuation. Serhiy, however, was stopped at the very first Russian checkpoint.
It is located in the Zaporizhzhia region on the highway between the cities of Orikhiv and Tokmak, near a fork in the road leading toward the city of Polohy.
Vyacheslav says that there were only a few cars with Serhiy, and it could hardly be called a convoy.
“Release Those Held in Filtration Camps”: OSCE Ambassadors Respond to MIPL
Study
“Those at the back of the convoy saw that the soldiers at the checkpoint took his phone and started checking it. Their reaction was something like, ‘Oh, kid, you’re in trouble.’ It was as if they’d found something incriminating. And they detained him,” Vyacheslav recounts, citing eyewitness accounts.
He speculates that Serhiy may not have wiped his phone before the trip, and there might have been photos with the Ukrainian flag in the background or something like that—Serhiy made no secret of his pro-Ukrainian stance.
Serhiy Tabachuk
After his detention, his family called Sergey’s number, but strangers answered the phone. Later, they began rejecting the calls. After that, most of the numbers from which Sergey’s family had called were blacklisted.
It was impossible to rush to the checkpoint right away—at that time, a two-day curfew had been declared in the Zaporizhzhia region, and later the Russians occupied other settlements that one would have to pass through to reach the checkpoint.
Why do the Russians need civilian prisoners?
Mykola Kikkas, an expert at the International Institute for Human Rights (IIHR) and a lawyer at the Regional Center for Human Rights, says that we cannot know for certain why the Russians are holding civilians. However, there are theories.
“The Russians may be using this to build up their pool of prisoners for exchange; they may be trying to coerce people into cooperating with their intelligence services; or they may be charging them with so-called ‘crimes under the laws of the “DPR.”’ And sometimes they may not have any clearly defined goal—they seized someone in the heat of the moment, and then don’t know what to do with that person next, so they just hold them. I wouldn’t rule out such a meaningless scenario either,” notes Mykola Kikkas.
He emphasizes that in any case, this constitutes a gross violation of the right to personal liberty (Article 5 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms). It is also a war crime—the unlawful deprivation of liberty of a person protected under international humanitarian law. Serhiy is a civilian and is therefore protected by the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
In addition to the norms of international humanitarian law and general human rights standards, Kikkas clarifies that Serhiy Tabachuk’s case is unambiguously covered by the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
“Under this convention, the relatives of a disappeared person have an unquestionable right to receive information about their whereabouts, as well as to prompt and adequate compensation for the suffering caused by the enforced disappearance. Therefore, by leaving the family without any information about the missing person, the Russian Federation is once again violating international law,” explains the IHRC expert.
Furthermore, in his opinion, the prolonged detention of a person without providing relatives with adequate information about their whereabouts, as well as without the possibility of meeting with them, may constitute inhuman treatment of the missing person’s relatives.
Author: Artur Prikhnо
Serhiy Tabachuk is a volunteer from Dnipro who, in March of this year, volunteered to evacuate civilians from Mariupol. But at the very first Russian checkpoint, he was detained by Russian military personnel.
According to unverified sources, the volunteer may be being held in a penal colony in Olenivka, Volnovakha District, Donetsk Oblast. This is the same facility where another volunteer from Dnipro—Igor Talalay—was previously held while undergoing “filtration” at the penal colony.
Igor Talalay: Three Months of “Filtration” in the Torture Chambers of Occupied Donetsk
Region
Tabachuk’s family does not know why he was detained. The International Institute for Human Rights (IIHR) shares what is known about Serhiy and his disappearance.
He helped children
with cancer
“Serhiy is a refined and creative person; he’s completely unsuited for military service. Sometimes he played laser tag with me—that’s the only time he ever wore camouflage,” says Vyacheslav, Serhiy’s brother, in a comment to the MIPL.
For several years, Serhiy helped children—working with them in cancer clinics after their chemotherapy treatments.
“The children saw him as a friend or even a father,” says Vyacheslav. “He treats them with great care. Before the war, Serhiy also led hiking trips for tourists. And if there were children on the hike, they’d all gather around him. He’d immediately find something to entertain them with and have fun with them himself.”
He played wind instruments, organized celebrations, and made costumes—these were the things Serhiy did in peacetime.
Serhiy Tabachuk
Volunteering already took up a large part of his life back then. Vyacheslav says: Serhiy never put his own interests first, but always tried to help those around him. The outbreak of full-scale war only confirmed this.
He took out a loan to save people
“Right after the invasion began, Serhiy called me and asked what I was going to do. We found some guys who were delivering tires to checkpoints. We worked with them. Then we loaded sand, and later Serhiy became a volunteer at the train station—welcoming displaced people. He was right at home there,” says Vyacheslav.
Eventually, the need for volunteers at the train station disappeared, so Serhiy began looking for people involved in evacuation efforts. Volunteering, his brother says, took a toll on him, especially financially—there were no jobs at the time.
Serhiy took out a loan of 2,000 hryvnias, filled up his car, and began preparing for a trip to Mariupol to evacuate people. He loaded the car with all sorts of necessary supplies—from food to sleeping bags.
He didn’t tell his family that he was going to Mariupol—he was afraid they would try to stop him. His family found out about it on the day Serhiy went missing from other volunteers.
It’s important to note one detail from Serhiy’s background. When Russia first began its aggression against Ukraine, back in 2014, Serhiy was working as a construction worker in Moscow. At that time, he and other workers who were with him were arrested. Serhiy was out of contact for nearly two months. His family knew nothing about who was holding him captive or why. Eventually, he was deported to Ukraine, and a stamp was placed in his passport barring him from re-entering Russia.
Serhiy’s brother speculates that this may be one of the reasons why he has been held hostage for so long.
The Russians didn’t like something on his phone
In mid-March, volunteers formed two convoys to go to Mariupol to pick up people. The first convoy left on March 18. It included Igor Talalay, mentioned above. The second convoy, in which Serhiy was traveling, set out early in the morning on March 19. They were supposed to meet in Zaporizhzhia, but due to organizational shortcomings, they missed each other—the first convoy was already in Mangush at that time, a few kilometers from Mariupol.
The fact that the convoys were unable to meet meant that they traveled to Mariupol via different routes. The first convoy successfully entered the city and began the evacuation. Serhiy, however, was stopped at the very first Russian checkpoint.
It is located in the Zaporizhzhia region on the highway between the cities of Orikhiv and Tokmak, near a fork in the road leading toward the city of Polohy.
Vyacheslav says that there were only a few cars with Serhiy, and it could hardly be called a convoy.
“Release Those Held in Filtration Camps”: OSCE Ambassadors Respond to MIPL
Study
“Those at the back of the convoy saw that the soldiers at the checkpoint took his phone and started checking it. Their reaction was something like, ‘Oh, kid, you’re in trouble.’ It was as if they’d found something incriminating. And they detained him,” Vyacheslav recounts, citing eyewitness accounts.
He speculates that Serhiy may not have wiped his phone before the trip, and there might have been photos with the Ukrainian flag in the background or something like that—Serhiy made no secret of his pro-Ukrainian stance.
Serhiy Tabachuk
After his detention, his family called Sergey’s number, but strangers answered the phone. Later, they began rejecting the calls. After that, most of the numbers from which Sergey’s family had called were blacklisted.
It was impossible to rush to the checkpoint right away—at that time, a two-day curfew had been declared in the Zaporizhzhia region, and later the Russians occupied other settlements that one would have to pass through to reach the checkpoint.
Why do the Russians need civilian prisoners?
Mykola Kikkas, an expert at the International Institute for Human Rights (IIHR) and a lawyer at the Regional Center for Human Rights, says that we cannot know for certain why the Russians are holding civilians. However, there are theories.
“The Russians may be using this to build up their pool of prisoners for exchange; they may be trying to coerce people into cooperating with their intelligence services; or they may be charging them with so-called ‘crimes under the laws of the “DPR.”’ And sometimes they may not have any clearly defined goal—they seized someone in the heat of the moment, and then don’t know what to do with that person next, so they just hold them. I wouldn’t rule out such a meaningless scenario either,” notes Mykola Kikkas.
He emphasizes that in any case, this constitutes a gross violation of the right to personal liberty (Article 5 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms). It is also a war crime—the unlawful deprivation of liberty of a person protected under international humanitarian law. Serhiy is a civilian and is therefore protected by the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
In addition to the norms of international humanitarian law and general human rights standards, Kikkas clarifies that Serhiy Tabachuk’s case is unambiguously covered by the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
“Under this convention, the relatives of a disappeared person have an unquestionable right to receive information about their whereabouts, as well as to prompt and adequate compensation for the suffering caused by the enforced disappearance. Therefore, by leaving the family without any information about the missing person, the Russian Federation is once again violating international law,” explains the IHRC expert.
Furthermore, in his opinion, the prolonged detention of a person without providing relatives with adequate information about their whereabouts, as well as without the possibility of meeting with them, may constitute inhuman treatment of the missing person’s relatives.
This is an automatic translation generated by DeepL.