“I Had Every Chance of Not Returning from Captivity”. A Conference on Civilians Unlawfully Detained by Russia Was Held in Lisbon
On 24 February, the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Embassy of Ukraine in Portugal, the PR Army and the Nova School of Business and Economics held the conference “Unseen Civilians: a Global Call for Justice”.
The programme of the conference also included a panel discussion involving Olena Yahupova, former unlawfully detained civilian, Marta Wytrykowska from the European External Action Service, Inna Zavorotko, Deputy Head of Unit in the Legal Support Department of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and Anastasiia Holovnenko, Advocacy Campaign Lead of the Center for Civil Liberties.
“Every day, in temporarily occupied territories and in Russia, both unlawfully detained people and prisoners of war suffer from psychological violence and torture. Some of them die when detained and interrogated. Russia does not return their bodies and seeks to conceal the stories of these victims. Released civilians tell us that in the occupied territories of Ukraine, roads are densely flanked by unsigned graves of victims of enforced disappearances”, Anastasiia Holovnenko stressed.
Olena Yahupova, a former unlawfully detained civilian, told her story at the event. Olena is the wife of a professional serviceman from Kamianka-Dniprovska in the Zaporizhzhia Region, who spent over six months in Russian captivity. The woman told ambassadors, activists and the media how she was tortured: they tried to strangle her with a cable from an electric kettle, placed a bag over her head, beat her on the head, threatened her with rape and electric shocks, and forced her to sit on a police baton.
Now, Olena tries to prove that the Russians did not just violate the “rules of war” but sold her into labour slavery, where she, together with another dozen and a half people unlawfully detained in the occupied territories, was forced to dig trenches for the Russian army and clear minefields. But the most important thing is that Olena Yahupova strives to help all other Ukrainians still detained in the occupied territories. Only four people out of 18, with whom Olena was kept in labour slavery, managed to get back to freedom.
“Earlier, in the captivity, my aim was to survive. Now I have embraced a goal to fight and convince. I had every chance of not returning from captivity. God decided that I hadn’t finished something here yet,” Olena Yagupova concluded her speech.
The event was opened by José Pedro Aguiar Branco, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal, Nuno Francisco Lopes, Vice President of Municipality of Cascais, and Maryna Mykhailenko, Ambassador of Ukraine to Portugal. This conference, attended by high-level politicians, ambassadors of Kosovo and the United Kingdom, media and civil society, was organized to once again stress that the European and international community should be involved in the release of all prisoners of the Kremlin.
It was also emphasized at the conference that the demands of the People First! international advocacy campaign to release prisoners of war, unlawfully detained civilians, deported Ukrainian children, and political prisoners held by Russia should be supported. The Nobel Peace Prize winners, the Center for Civil Liberties and Memorial, initiated this campaign, supported by over 40 other human rights organisations and networks from different countries.
Photos: Sofiya Shovikova Nova, Liza Akulova
