Russian-backed forces behind 'war crimes' in Donbas region suggest dark days to come, says activist
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin formally recognized Russian-controlled breakaway regions in Donbas
In the eastern portion of the Donbas region, a conflict zone claimed by both Ukraine and Russia, people have been living under the control of Russian proxies since 2014.
The region includes the self-proclaimed states of Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, both of which claimed independence following Russia's annexation of Crimea eight years ago.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin formally recognized both as independent regions.
Olexsandra Matviychuk, chair of Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties, says what has happened in Donbas can tell us a lot about what Ukraine might be in for over the next days and weeks.
She spoke with Day 6 host Peter Armstrong on Friday from Kyiv. Here is part of that conversation.
Walk us through what happened in places like Donetsk and Luhansk since Russian-backed separatists took control back in 2014.
We have been documenting war crimes and serious human rights violations in the occupied Donbas since the war started, so for eight years already. Our special focus is the practice of illegally kidnapping, torturing, extrajudicial killing and detention of people.
The majority of them were civilians, among them were men and women. Before occupation, there are at least three million people [living] in that territory, and now it's transferred to a grey zone where the law [does] not exist at all and people have no protection from violations.
One of the commanders of the Moscow-based separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 is a man named Igor Strelkov. Why is it important to remember who he is?
Because it's a good example [of] when we don't reach the people who [commit] war crimes, they will go to another country and do the same. Strelkov ... committed war crimes in Transnistria, in war in Chechnya, in Crimea and in Donbas.
Also, it's a good example [of] how Russian citizens are used in the war, because when the war started, this illegal armed group was headed by a Russian citizen like Igor Strelkov. And it's not only because he was involved in the tragedy and the shooting of [flight] MH17, where more than 300 people ... died.
Now in war with Russia and Ukraine, we speak about the whole region because war crimes against civilians are effective — and new war crimes emerged.
(Editor's note: Igor Strelkov, also known as Igor Girkin, is one of four men accused by Dutch prosecutors of being responsible for the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.)
That's such a stark thing to say: that the war crimes against civilians were effective. And in fact, you've written that for the Kremlin, war crimes are not mistakes, but tactics. What do you mean by that?
We saw it in the first two years of the war because in order to obtain control over the region, Russia [targeted], they prosecuted, people [capable of] self-organization and coordination.... And that's why the first targets [are] journalists, human rights defenders, civil activists, art and religious leaders.
This is a terror against civilians, which is used in order to save this control over the region.
Another detainee we hear about is Lyudmila Huseinova, a children's rights advocate who was detained. Why was she detained?
Lyudmila Huseinova [was an] ordinary engineer in Novoazovsk. And when Novoazovsk was occupied, she [took] care of children, orphans.... And because she was very brave and very insistent in communication with so-called occupation authorities, she was imprisoned.
She was very severely tortured, and now she's in a colony [part of Ukraine's penitentiary system]. And I know that she wrote ... a message to family that now Russians come and this torture will start again, and it's better for her to die and not to go through this torture again.
One of the names that keeps coming up when reading about what's happened in these regions is Stanislav Aseyev. Why is his story important?
Because he is a journalist who works in occupied territories. He anonymously sent his materials to Radio Liberty and was detained in occupied Donbas. He spent two years in the secret prison, isolation ... [in a] military base on the Donetsk in the premises of a factory.
And Stanislav Aseyev, when he [was] released, he wrote a book about this horrible experience, which [was] translated into different languages and opened the truth to the world.
How many prisoners and detainees are we talking about that are held by Russian-backed forces?
We can speak about 300 people, and this is [from the] official data — Security Service of Ukraine. But the truth is that this is only a [tip] of the iceberg. We don't know the real situation in this grey zone. The truth is that we don't know the real numbers of detainees.
And the whole population of those occupied territories, they are also hostages of the situation because ... they have no possibilities to protect their rights and freedom.
The latest report from Human Rights Watch documents a lot of this, but it also says there are credible reports of arbitrary detentions by the Ukrainian government as well.
We have a very big problem with Security Service of Ukraine. That's why during the last year in the Ukrainian Parliament, the draft law pushed reform of Security Service of Ukraine — and we were highly involved in this drafting of law — in order to transfer security service from the former inheritance of KGB-style [security] to a modern security service like in the Western countries.
We know that in the beginning of war, security service detained illegally at least 18 people, and this was discovered by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. And after a huge scandal, all these people were released, and we have no information about a new such kind of attempt.
Written by Jason Vermes. Produced by Pedro Sanchez. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.