Statement on the death of the mayor of the city of Dniprorudne, Yevhenii Matvieiev, in Russian captivity

We extend our sincere condolences to the family of Yevhenii Matvieiev, the mayor of Dniprorudne. The death of the man in Russian captivity was reported on December 4, 2024.

Yevhenii Matvieiev was detained on March 13, 2022, at one of the Russian checkpoints on the outskirts of the city of Dniprorudne. At the time, the mayor continued to perform his duties. On February 27, 2022, local residents, headed by Matvieiev, did not allow a Russian military convoy to enter the city. Later, the mayor tried to organise the provision of humanitarian needs of the residents – baking bread, helping the low-income and elderly people, taking care of the evacuation of civilians towards the city of Zaporizhzhia and maintaining law and order in the city. Matvieiev refused to cooperate with the Russian occupation forces.

According to the available information, Yevhenii Matvieiev was illegally detained on the territory of the RF, his detention was confirmed by Russia through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2023. The circumstances of Yevhenii Matvieiev’s death are unknown.

At the moment, the Russian Federation is illegally detaining a number of local government officials. These include the mayor of Hola Prystan Oleksandr Babych, the mayor of Kherson Ihor Kolykhaiev, the mayor of Kherson in 2014-2020 Volodymyr Mykolaienko, the deputy of Kupiansk city council Mykola Maslii, and the illegally convicted deputy of Nova Kakhovka city council Ihor Protokovylo. The whereabouts of Anatolii Siryi, the detained head of the village of Novi Borovychi, Chernihiv region, are unknown.

In 2024, several cases of civilian deaths in Russian detention facilities became known. The international community must respond urgently and make every effort to prevent the deaths of other illegally detained Ukrainians.

We call on the ICRC:

• fully fulfil their mandate, identify the whereabouts of Ukrainian civilians, and monitor Russian prisons where Ukrainians are held;
• make every effort to guarantee their basic rights, protect them from torture and ill-treatment, and ensure that they receive adequate medical care.

We call on the UN, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe:

• ensure continuous, extensive monitoring of violations of civilian rights in places of detention on the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and in the territory of the RF;
• regularly inform the international community about the situation of violations of their rights;
• facilitate the international investigation of crimes committed by the RF in the course of its armed aggression against Ukraine;
• exert constant pressure on the Russian Federation to release all illegally detained or convicted Ukrainian citizens.

We call on national law enforcement agencies and the International Criminal Court:

• investigate all known cases of human rights violations in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine;
• pay attention to the systematic persecution of civilians, which, according to experts from the OSCE Moscow Mechanism, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry into Violations in Ukraine and Ukrainian human rights organisations, has signs of a crime against humanity.

We call on Ukrainian and foreign media:

• widely cover all cases of unlawful detention and imprisonment of Ukrainian civilians in the Russian Federation;
• facilitate the investigation and identification of persons involved in the commission of crimes.

The situation of Ukrainian civilians, many of whom were detained in the spring of 2022 and are currently being held in Russian detention facilities, is dire. According to the testimonies of the released people, these people often suffer from torture, ill-treatment and inadequate conditions of detention. We call on those who care to unite and help in every possible way to free Ukrainian civilians held by Russia!

Human Rights Centre ZMINA
Human rights association Freerights
Media Initiative for Human Rights
Ukraine without torture
Crimean process
Human Rights House Crimea
Crimean Human Rights Group
Association of relatives of political prisoners of the Kremlin
Truth Hounds
CrimeaSOS