Several dozens of volunteer drivers were released from captivity of militants in Donbass/Collage of Channel 24
Several dozen civilians were released from the captivity of pro-Russian militants in Donbas. All of them were drivers who carried humanitarian aid to Mariupol.
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The men were kept for more than 3 months in the occupied village of Olenevka, Donetsk region. Tatyana Pechonchik, head of the public organization ZMINA, spoke about their dismissal on July 22. The release from captivity became known a week before. It should be remembered that there is information about prisoners that cannot be disseminated, so as not to interfere with the exchange.
How volunteer drivers were captured
Groups of volunteer drivers left Zaporozhye for Mariupol in late March and early April. They planned to help civilians leave the occupation. There was not a single military among them and the transport was moving along the evacuation columns.
But they were already detained at one of the checkpoints. At the same time, their relatives were told about some kind of “check”, which should last a month. Subsequently, it became known that they wanted to accuse each of the captives of terrorism.
Relatives of the prisoners for a long time did not dare to publicly declare the abduction, because they were afraid that publicity could cause damage. However, at the end of May, information was nevertheless made public about the taking of their relatives as hostages, – said Tatyana Pechonchik.
At first, it was known about 22 captured drivers. Then their number grew to 33 people. Therefore, lawyers are working on the release of one more volunteer from this list.
Pay attention! Some of the captured drivers told the details of their detention as militants in the broadcast of the Polish edition of Telewizja Obywatelska. It can be viewed at this link .
