Disappearances of personalities, violence towards the population … in the Kherson region, Russia, which faces a fierce resistance, accentuates the repression to impose its power.
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For a few days, disappearances multiply mysteriously. Local elected, journalists, activists and priests are removed in turn in Ukrainian cities fallen in the hands of the Russians. Some sometimes reaffire surface, but for the most part, the silence drags out, making the worst fear.
What has become the coordinator of demonstrations in Melitopol, Olga Gaisumova, kidnapped on March 12? Where was the journalist Oleh Buturn, disappeared on the same day in Kakhovka? What spell is reserved for the Mayor of Dniproroudne, Yevgeniy Matveyev, removed the next day? The elected official is one of the three kidnappled mayors in less than a week in these areas of southern Ukraine. The other two, in Skadovsk and Melitopol, have been released since then, but the list of missing continues to lie in the territories occupied by the Russian forces, especially in the Kherson region.
“It’s a mix of targeted and random kidnappings”, observes the Mattia Nelles political analyst. Their number remains unknown, but the testimonies collected on the phone by Le Monde in the occupied areas and those obtained by human rights defenders all show growing repression. “We get more and more disturbing signals. Dozens of people have been contacting us for a few days to ask for help”, Alarms Oleksandra Matvichouk, Human Rights Counsel and Director of Civil Liberties in kyiv.
Communications are difficult and the information, parcels. Since March 5, thousands of people demonstrate every day against occupation in the Kherson area. The photos and videos broadcast on social networks show their determination, their slogans (“Putin, you are fucked”, “fascists”) and the Russian soldiers who shoot in the air to bring back the crowds, but no act of violence occupants is visible. And for good reason: “When it is the case, the military confiscate the photo material, explains M me Matvichouk. Today, many people are afraid. We only see the emerged part of the ‘Iceberg. “
“The Kherson area is Ukraine”
Some documents still reach him. A photo, received a few hours earlier, shows the lacerated cuffs of a resident of Kherson after his arrest. On another appears the tumped face of a woman. “A soldier who controlled his passport at a checkpoint asked him to say that” Kherson is Russia “. She replied” Kherson is Ukraine. “The member struck him with his weapon,” says the human rights lawyer.
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