Ukraine

Village Hero Abducted without Cause

Oleksandr Zaporozhets (Rus. Александр Запорожец)
Date of birth: 27 September 1969
Abducted since: 14 March 2022
Last known location: Village of Bayrak, Kharkiv Region

Oleksandr is from the village of Bayrak in the Kharkiv Region and worked as a radio and television technician. Owing to his technical expertise, many people from the surrounding villages turned to him when they needed help repairing computers, televisions, or even combine harvesters. Before the outbreak of the war, Oleksandr had planned to visit his daughter in Germany in autumn 2022. Shortly after the invasion, his home village was occupied, and the electricity supply was cut off. Despite the danger, Oleksandr made efforts to keep the mobile communications network in the region operational, allowing people to remain in contact with their families.

Abduction

On 14 March 2022, he was on his way to carry out maintenance work on a mobile phone tower. Near his home, he and his wife were surrounded by more than ten armed Russian soldiers. Without providing any explanation, they detained Oleksandr, placed him in an armoured personnel carrier, and abducted him to an unknown location. For more than three years, Russia has been holding him without charge and has concealed information about both his state of health and his whereabouts.