Ukrainian goes missing in Crimea after FSB detention, family pleads for answers
Serhii Hrishchenkov (Photo: family archive)
Disappearances of Ukrainians continue to be reported in occupied Crimea. This time, it concerns Serhii Hrishchenkov, who, according to his daughter, was taken away in an unknown direction by FSB officers, and all contact with him has been lost, according to a Telegram post by Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
According to the Ukrainian Ombudsman, the family is searching for Serhii Hrishchenkov in the temporarily occupied Crimean Peninsula. He was detained in Sevastopol by unknown individuals who identified themselves as officers of the Russian FSB, and then disappeared in an unknown direction.
Details of the nighttime disappearance
According to the daughter of the missing man, her father, Serhii Hrishchenkov, a citizen of Ukraine, disappeared during the night of May 6 to 7, 2025.
It has been preliminarily established that in Sevastopol, unknown individuals approached him and identified themselves as officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation. After that, the man was taken away in an unknown direction.
At present, neither his relatives nor the official authorities of Ukraine know where Serhii Hrishchenkov is or what his current status is. For this reason, the family continues to search for any information about him through human rights organizations.
Ukrainian ombudsman addresses the Russian side
Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets stated that he has officially appealed to his Russian counterpart, Tatyana Moskalkova, demanding information on the procedural status, grounds for detention, and the exact whereabouts of Hrishchenkov.
Violation of international law
Dmytro Lubinets emphasizes that such cases are not isolated on the occupied Crimean Peninsula: Ukrainian citizens are effectively being abducted under the guise of Russian law enforcement operations.
The Ukrainian Ombudsman stressed that the actions of the Russian authorities violate several norms of international law, in particular:
- Paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 9, and Paragraph 2 of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
- Paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
These provisions guarantee the right of a detainee and their relatives to receive information about the grounds for detention, the procedural status, and the place of detention.
Systematic practice of 'abductions'
The Ukrainian Ombudsman emphasized that the case of Serhii Hrishchenkov is not an exception.
“Cynicism and disregard for the rights of Ukrainians in the temporarily occupied territories have become routine,” the Ombudsman stated.
According to him, on the territory of temporarily occupied Crimea, there is a growing number of cases where Ukrainian citizens are detained by unknown individuals acting under the cover of the FSB.
Such detentions usually take place without official documentation and without providing any information to the detainees’ relatives or lawyers. This is evidence of the complete inability of the occupying administration in Crimea to guarantee even basic human rights.
