Yuriy Lutsenko is lucky to be alive.
The prominent Ukrainian journalist and activist was kidnapped on Jan. 21, interrogated, tortured and left for dead in a snowy forest outside the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.
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The man who was taken along with him, Yuriy Verbytsky, was not so lucky. Too weak to crawl to safety, he froze to death in a wooded area not far from Lutsenko, according to the Ukrainian interior ministry. Verbytsky’s family told Radio Svoboda that traces of duct tape were on his face and body, and that a plastic bag had been over his head when he was found.
The two men were taken from Oleksandrivska Hospital in Kiev, where they had gone to seek treatment for an eye injury Verbytsky had sustained during violent clashes with police earlier. Several minutes after they arrived at the hospital, a group of about 10 men stormed into their room, beat them and then dragged them to a van, Lutsenko told Mashable by phone from Boris hospital in Kiev, where he is being treated for injuries suffered during the kidnapping.
“They [his captors] used instruments like wooden and metal sticks, and they tried not to make much damage, but much pain,” Lutsenko said. “They could have broken all my bones and head, but they just made a lot of hits into very painful places. They knew what they were doing and were very experienced kidnappers and torturers. This must have been part of their jobs for many years.”
Maidan civic leader Igor #Lutsenko kidnapped from Zhovtneva hospital this morning. Details: https://t.co/WEDoFo9w35 pic.twitter.com/D5Wce7eCex
— Varyagi (@varyagi) January 21, 2014
Kidnappings have become a serious concern among anti-government protesters in Ukraine since the largely peaceful protests escalated into violence last week following the passage of strict anti-protest laws meant to quell the Euromaidan movement, as it is called.
The protests began in late November after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych spurned a proposed trade agreement with the European Union, preferring instead to establish closer ties with Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Since the violence began last week, there have been nearly a dozen reports of activists involved in the movement having gone missing.
They include Dmytro Bulatov, an activist from the Automaidan motorist protest movement, which strategically uses vehicles to block police vans and entrances to the lavish estates of top-level government officials. Bulatov disappeared and has not been seen since Jan. 22, the day Verbytsky was found dead, leaving many activists on Independence Square — the epicenter of the anti-government demonstrations — fearing the worst.
One of #automaidan activists Dmytro Bulatov still missing. No news from him after berkut and titushki attack 3 days ago #ukraine #euromaidan
— Olga Tokariuk (@olgatokariuk) January 25, 2014
Another is Alexandra Halyak, an asthmatic medical volunteer, who was snatched by Berkut riot police at a railway station in Kiev. They stole her inhaler, beat her in the ribs and drove her to the woods, news website Ukrainska Pravda reported. She was later released, and discussed her ordeal with online television station Hromadske TV.
Local media have also reported several other kidnappings.
As the reports come in, fears are mounting that a clandestine group of police officers and hired thugs have been granted special permission by authorities to quell dissent by any means necessary — including kidnapping and torture.
Kiev police spokesperson Oleksandr Radkevych denied that any officers are involved in any kidnappings of activists, telling Mashable, “Police have only arrested activists who have broken (new anti-riot) laws.”
Mark Galeotti, a New York University professor and post-Soviet security-affairs expert who researches Russian and Ukrainian security forces, says it’s likely these operations are happening, but that they would have to be done on an ad-hoc basis.
“The issue here is, whether or not this is a carefully managed strategy from above, or –- and in some ways it might actually be even more dangerous –- if there are these sort of broad orders from the top saying ‘Shut these people up,’ he told Mashable by phone from Moscow. “And then people within the chain of command are taking that … as nod-and-a-wink orders, saying what that means is that we have free rein to go and kill, as long as we’re not doing it on camera or on YouTube.”
Taras Berezovets, director of Berta Communications and a political consultant with high-level contacts in the Ukrainian government, said he believes there is a group going around and kidnapping activists to intimidate and terrorize them. He called the alleged group a “death squad,” and likens it to that of Operation Condor, a secret terror campaign implemented in 1975 by police in Latin America who kidnapped and killed dissidents around the world.
Berezovets told Mashable that the group was “most likely comprised of police officers and titushki,” pro-government hired thugs who have quarrelled with anti-government protesters in recent days to stir unrest.
Many of the abductions have occurred at hospitals, according to Euromaidan SOS, the emergency services wing of the protest movement, where activists have sought treatment after being injured during clashes with riot police. Groups of Afghan War veterans have been guarding hospitals for the past four days.
But on Independence Square, the epicenter of the Euromaidan protest movement, they have also tightened security. Everyone going in and out of the heavily fortified area receives proper scrutiny from Cossack military men who frequently stop and question those who appear suspicious.
At the door to the resistance headquarters, the Trade Unions building that has been occupied by protesters since they stormed it on Dec. 1, ID cards are now required.
Igor Kashko, a young man wearing fatigues and a large fur hat, stood nearby with a wooden club in his hand.
“We are watching for secret police and provocateurs,” he told Mashable. “Can you prove who you are? You must to pass.”
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Christopher J. Miller is an editor at English-language newspaper the Kyiv Post in Ukraine.