UKRAINE, KHARKIV REGION, Aug 11 — On February 6, 2023, Russian forces abducted Oleksandr Pluzhnyk in the village of Novoiehorivka. Initially, he was held in Staryi Oskol, located in the Belgorod region. Now Russia held him in Borisoglebsk, Voronezh Oblast, said Antonina, Oleksandr’s niece, to the human rights activist platform Zmina.

Russian troops have been occupying Novoiehorivka in the Kupiansk district since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion in 2022. 

After the occupation, Russian troops had been searching the locals in villages, including Oleksandr’s house, but they had not made any complaints against him before. 

Antonina says that on February 6, 2023, Oleksandr spoke on the phone with his son when Russian troops approached him and said that any phone calls are prohibited. 

“He (Oleksandr) swore at them (Russian troops), and since then, we haven’t seen him,” said Antonina. 

After that, Oleksandr’s wife went to the Russian military headquarters to find out where her husband was. But there she was assured that Alexander would be held for a few days and then released. 

Later, a former prisoner of war (POW) contacted Antonina and said she had been in a colony with Oleksandr. The woman did not specify where exactly, as the Russian had brought her blindfolded.

The former captive said that Ukrainians from the Kupiansk and Dvorichna districts were detained in a Russian prison. The Russians held women and men in cells together and took the fingerprints of the abducted men. 

“The camp was located in a field somewhere in the Belgorod region. There were people from villages such as Tavilzhanka, Vilshana, Novoyegorivka, Hrakove, Terny, and Berestove. The cells had bars. They were allowed out for walks in groups for 20-30 minutes. All Russian soldiers always wore masks. There were also Ukrainian military personnel. Russia tortured them separately,” the woman said.

The former POW added that in February 2023, Russians constantly tortured and abused them in every way possible. From March of that year, the Russians stopped using torture, but instead forced the prisoners to work in the kitchen and clean the camp.

“She said that at that time, Oleksandr’s health was normal,” his niece notes

.

According to the former POW, the Russians gave the prisoners a “first aid kit” with medicines, from which everyone took the medication they needed. They received Russian military rations once a day. “If you didn’t manage to eat during the allotted time, you remained hungry,” she said. 

Among the civilians, there were many women with children; Russia fed them twice a day.

There were no sinks or toilets in the cells, so all the abducted people were taken to the bathroom when they needed to.

“(Afterward), women were threatened with execution if they did not escape within an hour. They were taken outside the camp and released, and then they had to find their way home,” Antonina says.

In 2024, the released prisoner told Antonina that the Russians held Oleksandr in the city of Staryi Oskol in the Belgorod region. Later, the Russian transferred the pensioner to Borisoglebsk in the Voronezh region, where he currently resides.

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