As he was walking past the Russian-controlled checkpoint outside the occupied city of Vasylivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast in November, Bohdan thought that he had finally escaped the horrors of Russian captivity.
The 22-year-old college student was kidnapped from his occupied hometown in southeastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast in August and held captive for three months. On Nov. 28, Russian troops brought him to their checkpoint and filmed Bohdan's so-called "deportation" to Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhia.
In the video, later published on Russian-controlled media channels, a Russian combatant reads trumped-up charges to Bohdan, hands him his Ukrainian passport, and orders Bohdan to walk toward the Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Except that he never made it to the Ukrainian checkpoint.
As Bohdan and another Ukrainian “deportee” were on the road toward the area controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, they came across yet another Russian checkpoint.
His hopes of getting to Zaporizhzhia and reuniting with his friends were cut short when Bohdan heard a Russian officer saying: 'I can not let you go. You have seen our positions.'
"But we will give you a chance. Work and you will live," the officer said.
And so, yet another ordeal has begun. For almost four months, Russian troops held Bohdan and multiple other Ukrainian prisoners captive not far from that checkpoint, using them as a "labor force" for digging trenches and other hard work of the similar matter.
During that time, Bohdan was considered missing. His loved ones heard nothing but rumors about his whereabouts.
Bohdan was one of many Ukrainians who vanished this exact way.
Many Ukrainian families have reported their loved ones have gone missing after Russian occupiers recorded and published videos of their so-called "deportation" from the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
Inna, a Ukrainian woman, told the Kyiv Independent that her father went missing in the same way on Jan. 14. A video was posted online where a Russian soldier stands next to her father at a Russian checkpoint, reading out a verdict that commands that he is “deported.” He then orders the man to run. His hands tied in front of him, the captive runs away from the checkpoint.
After that, Inna hadn't heard from her father for almost three months.
Bohdan and Inna's father were finally released in March. Inna could not disclose any further details due to security concerns.
Dmytro Orlov, the exiled mayor of the Russian-occupied town of Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, wrote on Telegram in February that over the past several months, only a few Ukrainians who were "released on camera" actually reached a Ukrainian checkpoint in the oblast.
Orlov said that as soon as the camera is off, Russian troops take their prisoners to some area called "the pit" between occupied Vasylivka and Kamianske, two towns located about 60 kilometers south of the regional capital of Zaporizhzia. According to him, about 200 civilian prisoners were held there as of Feb. 17.
"Some of them are in captivity around the clock. Some people are forced to dig trenches and perform other work at the demands of the occupiers," Orlov wrote.
Zaporizhzhia Oblast is among the four Ukrainian oblasts that Russia claimed to have annexed in an attempt to solidify Russia's territorial gains following a sham referendum in late September. Now, the oblast is only partly occupied by the Russian troops.
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Photo: Courtesy
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