278. Detention, interrogation, and abuse of community leader, shelling of village.
Kachkarivka (Kherson)
LOCATION: Kachkarivka (Kherson)
DATE: March 2022-November 2022
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 1
SUMMARY: On July 10, 2022, Russian forces detained a community leader at his home during mass raids in Kachkarivka. He was taken to the former village council building and interrogated. He was released the same day because his captors needed to respond to an attack on their military base by Ukrainian forces. He previously had been interrogated by Russian forces at his home in June, during which time a Russian soldier strangled him and inflicted long-lasting injuries. On multiple occasions prior to this, he was pressured to collaborate with the administration established under occupation, but he refused. He remained in the village until its liberation in November 2022, but it became the target of constant shelling by Russian forces, resulting in large-scale destruction and extensive civilian casualties.
WITNESSES
The Witness is a civilian resident and community leader of Kachkarivka.
VICTIMS
The Victims were all civilians, including an ambulance driver, former ATO participants, a director at a local grain factory (allegedly killed by a Russian mortar shell), an electrician, and a couple from a nearby village (allegedly killed by shelling).
ALLEGED PERPETRATORS
as described by the Witness
The perpetrators include members of the internationally unrecognized “Donetsk People’s Republic,” representatives of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), and possible representatives of the Russian National Guard.