Mounting terror in occupied Crimea as FSB openly hide abducted Ukrainians while probably torturing out ‘confessions’
Russia’s FSB is concealing the whereabouts of at least five Ukrainians abducted since the beginning of 2025 and have still not admitted to holding several people whom they seized in late 2023 and 2024. Enforced disappearances began when Russia first invaded Crimea, and a terrifying number of Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian civic activists, two very young lads, and others vanished without trace. Here, at least, there is every hope that those abducted are still alive, but also serious concern that the FSB are holding them incommunicado and, very likely, subjecting them to torture. The lawlessness of such behaviour is chilling, as is the fact that the real number of people seized may well be higher, as people often avoid speaking out, for fear of making the situation worse.
Serhiy Hrishchenkov
More details have emerged about the Russia’s FSB abduction of 58-year-old IT specialist Serhiy Hrishchenkov from occupied Sevastopol, but the FSB are continued to conceal his whereabouts.
It is over two months since the FSB burst into Hrishchenkov’s apartment on 6 May 2025. The Media Initiative for Human Rights [MIHR] have learned that neither Serhiy, nor his wife were registered at this address, yet the FSB clearly knew where to come to find them. Hrishchenkov was forced to the floor with a blanket over his head and interrogated, while his wife was held, under guard, in another room. Both were then forced into different cars and taken away.
Serhiy’s wife was driven to the building now used by the FSB in Simferopol where they read out a charge of ‘state treason’ under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code. Hryshchenkov was accused of working for Ukraine’s SBU [Security Service] over two years. It appears that the charges are based on the supposed ‘testimony’ of another person, with it claimed that something had been handed over in Bakhchysarai.
She was forced to both undergo a lie detector test and to sign a non-disclosure commitment, before they finally released her at 3 a.m., warning that they could return.
No information has been provided as to where Hrishchenkov is being held, although it seems likely that he is in a SIZO [remand prison] in Simferopol, probably SIZO No. 2, opened soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and believed to be under the control of the FSB. Hrishchenkov’s daughter, Darya told MIHR that “the FSB in Crimea are the most horrific structure, with even the police trying to keep out of their way.” She adds that the people they seize are held “in cold storage” with this meaning that they are held without any official status. During the so-called ‘investigation’, she adds, the FSB try to beat or torture out ‘confessions’.
According to his family, Hrishchenko was not especially engaged in politics, but he did not conceal his pro-Ukrainian views.
As reported earlier, Darya first learned of her father’s abduction when she received a message from a phone which had belonged to her late grandfather, asking her to ring immediately. It was her mother whose own phone had been taken by the FSB. Because of the non-disclosure commitment, she dared tell Darya only that Hryshchenkov was accused by the FSB of ‘state treason’. Darya did, however, learn that the FSB on 6 May had demanded to know where Darya’s 18-year-old brother was. He is safely outside occupied Crimea for which she is thankful, assuming that otherwise he, too, would have been seized.
The family have managed to find a lawyer, although this is difficult in Crimea (or in any occupied part of Ukraine) with lawyers often refusing to represent people out of fear or because of threats. The lawyer has, however, also not been able to see Hryshchenkov.
Natalia Poliukh (b. 1975) and her husband Oleh Platonov (b. 1963)
Susana Izmailova
CTRC also reports that Susana Izmailova was taken away on 25 March 2025 by the FSB who carried out a search of her home in the village of Sofiivka (Simferopol raion).
Tamara Chernukha (b. 1963)
The 62-year-old ambulance paramedic from Chornomorske disappeared on 5 February 2025, with the Russian FSB and ‘police’ in occupied Crimea clearly knowing where the is but refusing to say. As reported earlier, relatives have learned through unofficial sources that she is being held in a SIZO (remand prison), with the charge one of ‘state treason’.
It was only at the beginning of February 2025 that 28-year-old Lera’s mother contacted Irade, a local human rights group, and told them that her daughter had been taken away by the FSB on 21 May 2024. Eight months after her disappearance, there were indications that ‘treason’ charges had been laid against the young woman although the FSB had provided no official acknowledgement of this and had earlier denied that any criminal charges had been laid.
Russia has created such an atmosphere of fear in occupied Crimea, and so blocked the flow of information that it was over a year before the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre first reported 45-year-old Kobzar’s enforced disappearance. His family last saw him on 5 March 2024, when he set off from his home in Sevastopol to work in Bakhchysarai. It is clear that the FSB are behind his disappearance as they turned up at his home the following day, carrying out a search and taking away his Ukrainian documents. His friends also had such visitations, with the FSB looking for documents concerning Kobzar.
28-year-old Ismail Shemshedino, who had recently become a father, has not been seen since 26 January 2024 when armed and masked FSB officers burst into his family’s home in Russian-occupied Crimea. It is now believed that his is being held at SIZO No. 2 in Simferopol, although the FSB have continued to deny any knowledge of him.
Two Crimean Tatar men - 22-year-old Fakhod Soliev and Server Aliev (33) disappeared in November 2023, with video footage suggesting that they were seized by enforcement officials.