Thread by @alisa_horshkova

I want to tell you the story of my cousin who was kidnapped by Russian soldiers from our house in Kherson two months ago on March 30th. He was a member of the territorial defense, as a civilian. He is also a former police officer.
*I call him brother because we are so close.

At the beginning of a full-scale invasion, Andrii voluntarily went to the military commissariat and became a member of territorial defence. He is also a former police officer.
#Ukraine️ #UkraineWar #Kherson

Later, from March 1, when the Kherson was completely occupied by Russian troops, Andrii did not stop resisting, and in every possible way helped our internal troops in destroying the aggressor.

Andrii resigned from Police year ago so we didn't think Russian soldiers would come to our house. Not to mention, that as soon as the threat of occupation appeared, the list of territorial defence was destroyed to avoid persecution.

But on March 30th, at about 10 am, members of russian special services came to our house, made a mess in our apartment looking for something, seized our personal belongings, equipment and other property.

Andrii tried to run away, but was caught after failing to jump out the window. According to the neighbors, about 15 armed Russian servicemen came for Andrii, they roughly tied him up and pushed him into the car.

For 4 days I have waited for my brother to be released, but it did not happen. And on March 3 I wrote an office statement to the Russian commandant about the abduction. It was morally difficult for me to communicate with Russian soldiers.

At first they tried offering me to work for them in the occupation police, then they offered me to help leave the country and evacuate me to Russia. But after my numerous refusals, one of the Russian soldiers started threatening me.

He said, I quote: "We will deport you away anyway, whether you like it or not"

Later that day we received an audio message from Andrii's phone telling that he was fine and we shouldn't be worried. In the commandant's office they promised me to give a call with an answer about my brother's whereabouts, but it did not happen.

During these two months we received total of 4 audio messages from Andriy, where we were convinced that he was just hiding, staying with a friend. But on May 5, a message came from his phone that Andrii was arrested by the Russian troops for participating in territorial defense

And on May 10 that he is in Sevastopol, Crimea in a pre-trial detention center for a crime against Russian troops.

Also on May 7, on Russian propaganda news channels iz.ru, ren.tv a video was published with Andrii, where we can see his injured right hand and depressed morale of Andrii.
Link: ren.tv/news/v-rossii/…

We do not exactly know the location and physical condition of Andrii so far. At the request of a lawyer, it became known that no criminal or administrative cases were opened against Andrei on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Also we sent a request to Simferopol SIZO-1 pre-trial detention center in Simferopol and got an answer that Andrii “is not contained and was not contained”.

For Russian soldiers, it doesn’t matter if you are a civilian, military, volunteer or simple an activist, whether you are a woman or a man. Every citizen of the occupied Kherson and the region is in danger, and every effort must be made to stop torture and threats.