Invisible in captivity: how to find and free Ukrainians hidden by Russia

More than 72,000 Ukrainians are considered missing under special circumstances. Some of them are in secret Russian captivity: without communication, without access to lawyers, without a chance to inform their families.

The state records these cases, but there is a lack of systematic search and communication with families. We have every chance to save these people if we pool our resources, create a coordination center, and engage international instruments .

"We don't know where he is. We do not know if he is alive. But we know for sure: he did not disappear on his own," echoed by families of civilians abducted during the occupation . A person disappears after a search, check at a checkpoint, or is abducted from their home . Enforced disappearances are a serious international crime.

Relatives or friends often have an idea of what happened, but what to do when a person and their connection to them disappears?

These people are considered missing. In reality, they are being held in secret detention facilities on the territory of the Russian Federation or in the occupied areas. They are isolated from the outside world: they cannot make phone calls, do not have access to lawyers, and their names do not appear in any official lists. Families are not even informed about the fact of detention.

Such incommunicado detention is a form of cruel, inhuman treatment. They are not "disappeared", but those who are hidden in Russian captivity.

Their relatives are disoriented and have to look for ways to help on their own: trying to engage Russian lawyers, waging an information campaign, putting pressure on government agencies to take action. The agencies cannot cope with thousands of appeals and, according to the families, mostly "fight back" with formal responses or even remain silent .

Those who survive and return from isolated detention say they are held in inhumane conditions, under pressure and torture, without communication, medication or contact with the world.

What doesn't work?

As experts from the Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin, have found, the state system for searching for incommunicado detainees is fragmented. Coordination between institutions is weak. There is no single algorithm of actions for families. Reports of disappearances are recorded, but, according to relatives, they are often not searched for.

The mother of the man who disappeared in 2022 says: "We wrote everywhere – to the colony, the pre-trial detention center, the ombudsman in the 'DPR'. No response." Another family has been waiting for three years for at least some confirmation that their son is alive. During this time, they learned from another, already released, who says he saw him in detention centers. But for the state, the man remains missing. The police and the Commissioner for Missing Persons record cases in special circumstances, but the fact that the state knows about them has not yielded any results for years, relatives complain .

What the state can do now?

After hundreds of conversations with families of incommunicado detainees, analysis of documents, complaints, case management practices, and legal assistance, we at the Association have come to the conclusion that the state can act more effectively. Not only to record, which is certainly an important task, but also to conduct search activities.

Applicants lack regular communication, coordination, and a sense that their relatives are actually being sought.

Relatives of detainees say they need centralization in all matters of search, identification and return of loved ones.

The SBU, the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Commissioner for Missing Persons under Special Circumstances, the Coordination Headquarters, the MFA – all are involved, but no one is a specialized coordinating body.

The applicants need to create a single coordination center that would receive appeals, support the case and coordinate all actions between structures, have intelligence capabilities to work with open data (OSINT tools), coordinate the efforts of family members to find relatives, conduct investigations and have access to a single database.

Along with the designation of a centralized body, the restart of the search system should include the establishment of consultant positions in regional ASCs and Resilience Centers to provide initial local urgent support to families after they become aware of the disappearance of a loved one. Relatives need help at least with paperwork and psychological stabilization.

To be able to act from the inside, namely from the territory of the Russian Federation – to search, check, establish location – we need a patron state.

Because we do not have our own consulates in Russia, we can ask a third, neutral country to take action in the interests of our citizens. This is provided for by international law, and the state should be more proactive in making such protection possible .

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War performs one of the most important tasks: it interviews military personnel released from captivity, who often testify to the detention of civilians who are considered missing in Ukraine under special circumstances. But often the families of those 'missing persons' who have been identified are not informed about this, and the information may not be used by the state to establish the fact of the identified person's imprisonment and prepare requests to Russia for their release. A clear procedure is needed: recording such evidence, promptly informing relatives and responsible authorities. This will help to intensify the struggle for the person's release .

Relatives expect the Commissioner for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances to establish a unified protocol for communication with families: regular meetings, information exchange, and involvement of relatives in search activities. Family members are ready to learn how to communicate with international institutions: UN, ICRC, OSCE and others, if they are taught how to do so.

Relatives of incommunicado detainees who are forced to go abroad should not be cut off from interacting with institutions to find their loved ones. They should be provided with the opportunity to submit applications online or through consulates.

Delay may cost Ukrainian detainees their lives.

The sooner we create an effective search system, combining the efforts of the state, families and human rights activists, the more people we will rescue from Russian captivity.