Russia has condemned Ukraine’s recent detention of Andrey Kosyak, a Russian citizen and member of militant forces in the Donbas, and demanded that Russian diplomats be admitted to see him.
In response, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry accused Russia of disregarding the lives of not only Ukrainian civilians in the Donbas, but also of Russian nationals it deployed to wage its nearly eight-year-old war in the region.
The incident occurred on Oct. 13 near the front line town of Zolote in Luhansk Oblast, some 600 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. According to Ukraine’s military, Kosyak was secretly recording videos and taking pictures of the hostilities zone under the guise of mine-sweeping works agreed at the Joint Coordination and Control Center (JCCC), a cross-frontline liaison body.
He was taken prisoner by Ukrainian troops. On Oct. 18, a court in Luhansk Oblast put Kosyak under arrest. He is suspected of participation in illegal armed formations.
In a fiery statement published on Oct. 19, spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry Maria Zakharova called the Ukrainian actions “treacherous and provocative.”
Zakharova accused Kyiv of failing to properly notify the Russian diplomatic mission within three days following Kosyak’s arrest, as it is demanded by the 1995 consular treaty between the two nations. Besides, the statement says, Ukraine also failed to ensure the Russian consular access to Kosyak, which must have been done within four days after the arrest.
In a statement of reply published on Oct. 20, Ukraine’s foreign ministry’s spokesman Oleh Nikolenko said the Ukrainian diplomacy was “surprised” that it had taken Russia six days to show interest in the Kosyak case.
“Such belated care clearly illustrates Russia’s attitude towards not only citizens of other nations it has been killing and torturing for seven years… but also of individuals bearing Russian passports,” the official said.
According to Ukrainian authorities, Kosyak acquired Russian citizenship in 2020. In general, as many as 600,000 individuals living in the occupied part of the Donbas also did so in the last few years after Russia launched a massive passport effort in the embattled region.
“We hope that the people of the Donbas, on which Russia unlawfully enforced its citizenship, will now see that Moscow is not interested in them, and the care it promises has nothing to do with the reality,” Nikolenko said. “Russia is interested only in handing in a passport and then sending in to fight.”
Since Russia unleashed its war against Ukraine in 2014, more than 13,000 people have been killed in the Donbas. As of April, 413 Ukrainian political prisoners have been held in Russian-occupied territories and Russia, according to the Ukrainian ombudsman Liudmyla Denisova.
