‘We will find you’: Russians using hit lists to hunt down influential Ukrainians
Rachel Schilke
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Several influential Ukrainians have been the targets of Russian forces as war between the two countries continues to escalate.
An Associated Press investigation determined the Russians have been systemically targeting Ukrainians nationally and locally through torture, detention, and executions. The Ukrainians were hunted by name, and they held various positions, including government officials, journalists, activists, veterans, religious leaders, and lawyers, per the outlet.
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Through the investigation, the news outlet examined a sample of 61 cases using documented written and photographed evidence, as well as interviews with family, friends, and activists. Members of Russian intelligence had compiled “hit lists” for months before the invasion in February, according to U.S. intelligence leaks and national security analysis from the United Kingdom. Russian agents made note of influential Ukrainians who could either become collaborators or “unreliable elements” who would be intimidated or even killed, per AP.
In one case, Andrii Kuprash, the head of a village north of Kyiv, got a call from a man speaking Russian asking if he was the village head.
Lying, Kuprash said, “No, you’ve got the wrong number.”
“We will find you anyway. It’s better to cooperate with us,” the man said in response.
The outlet obtained copies of five hit lists with 31 people on it, including people’s full names and often nicknames, dates of birth, and addresses. The list contained “eight soldiers, seven veterans, seven apparent civilians, and nine people accused of helping the Ukrainian military or intelligence services,” according to the report.
Even those who have no influential ties are targets, as well. Oleksandra Matviichuk, the head of the Center for Civil Liberties, said she is seeing over 770 cases of civilian captivities. What’s surprising to her, she told AP, is that some of the people taken captive have no ranking titles or connection to aiding intelligence services.
“Everybody can be a target. It shocked me. We were prepared for political persecution. … We weren’t prepared for terror,” Matviichuk said.
Kuprash had plenty of experiences with terror. After receiving that call, Kuprash fled into the woods to a hiding spot. Shortly after, Russians arrived at his home and held a knife to his son, 15, threatening to kill him if he did not give up his father’s location.
Three weeks later, a Russian commander appeared at his home. Kuprash was sat down at gunpoint and promised “a great life” if he gave them information on Ukrainian positions and names of veterans and fighters. He told the commander repeatedly that he did not have access to the information.
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Human rights lawyers told AP that under the laws of war, Russians could detain spotters, those who were giving up precise locations of forces, in humane conditions, but not make them disappear or torture them. It is evident, the AP found, that Russians are ignoring these laws.
Kuprash and several others accused of being spotters have been taken by Russian forces and brought to remote locations. They are subjected to jeering, humiliation, and torture.
Oleksii Dibrovskyi, a deputy of the Polohy City Council, was taken from his village after Russians found he had been sending Russian troop positions to the Ukrainian military. After removing him from his home, he was taken to a basement, a garage, and then a detention center, where he was beaten repeatedly.
At one point, they forced him into a safe with little breathability and later to a filtration and detention center, where he saw several others beaten and treated inhumanely.
Both Kuprash and Dibrovskyi survived. Kuprash said he was taken back to the village, where the commander said, “Live,” before driving off. Dibrovskyi was forced to say in a video before he was released that he was treated well, with the brutal injuries being from a fall.
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With stockpiles of evidence into torture and capture from Russia, several intelligence analysts and human rights specialists have cause to believe that Russia’s actions are grounds for an investigation into genocide.
“This is where the investigation of genocide should start,” Wayne Jordash, the director of Global Rights Compliance, said. “It’s how the Russians intended to take over and extinguish identity.”