The mother thought her son had died, then received a letter from a Russian colony: The Times told the story of Ukrainian Oleksiy Kovtun
Kyiv • UNN
Oleksii Kovtun disappeared in Bucha in March 2022. Later, the family received a letter from a Russian colony where he is being held without trial among thousands of other Ukrainians.
Ukrainian citizen Oleksiy Kovtun was among those whom the Russian occupiers kidnapped and imprisoned on the territory of the Russian Federation after the start of the full-scale invasion. His relatives told about this in an interview with The Times, reports UNN.
Details
Oleksiy and his parents, Larysa and Oleksandr, were in Bucha, Kyiv region, when Russian troops entered there. They hid in the basement and ate the food they had. But on March 12, 2022, 19-year-old Oleksiy decided to go to the occupied city to visit friends and did not return home.
According to relatives, Oleksiy, along with other detainees, was first taken to the city of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine, and from there he was transferred to a colony in the Tula region, where he remains to this day. After the disappearance of their son, the parents thought that he was no longer alive, but one day they received a letter from him. The letter was written in Russian and had no return address.
Mom, I'm alive, I'm healthy, I'm fine
Journalists note that Oleksiy rarely used Russian, because his native language was Ukrainian. Today, he is one of approximately 16,000 Ukrainian civilians who are believed to have disappeared into the abyss of the Russian penitentiary system without trial or charge. This is a violation of international law, in particular, the Geneva Convention, which prohibits the detention of civilians as prisoners of war.
Let us remind you
According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, 316 individuals and 164 legal entities from Russia are involved in the abduction of Ukrainian children. Among them is the Russian "humorist" Dmitry Khrustalev.
