WHERE IS OLEKSIY TROYAN?

Oleksiy Troyan was kidnapped on July 29, when he and his family were trying to leave the occupied Kherson region.

The 36-year-old Ukrainian was a head of the Khrestivsk OTG (the United territorial community) until 2020 and lately he was teaching computer science at the village school of Dolynske, Kakhovsky district. Even in the first days of the war, hiding from explosions in the basement, he taught remotely. But in the end, he decided to leave the occupied village. Oleksiy set out on the road with his wife Svetlana, two children (the oldest is 9 years old, the youngest is one and a half years old), and a married couple of his friends. They had to go through Crimea, because the ZSU (the Armed Forces of Ukraine) had already started striking the Antoniv and Kakhov bridges.

The Russian military at the checkpoint treated the Ukrainians defiantly and offensively. They checked their phones and made fun of the Ukrainian language. In particular, they were irritated by the word “kokhanyi” (Ukrainian - “beloved”), which was the way Svitlana called Oleksiy in her contacts.

The man was detained as if for preliminary interrogation. It lasted 5 hours. Svitlana with her baby, who was constantly crying, waited on the street all this time and heard the characteristic sounds of the body hitting the wall or the table from the room where Oleksiy was taken. The woman was chased away, threatened, but she did wait until her husband was taken out of the room. He was obviously not feeling well. They decided to take Oleksiy Troyan to the Federal Security Service of the border zone of Armyansk, but the occupants' car broke down, and they ordered his friends to transport him - of course, accompanied by the Russian military. When they got to the building, Oleksiy was taken inside, and his wife was told that there was no need to wait for him: they might let him go in a day, or they might not let him go in a month. The latter happened.

On the morning of July 30, Svitlana with a one-and-a-half-year-old child in her arms came to Armyansk again. She asked to meet with her husband and tried to find out why the arrest occurred. They were not allowed to meet. The reason for the arrest was not explained. After prolonged persuasion by his wife, Oleksiy was allowed to call her, from an unknown Russian number. The conversation was short. Oleksiy said that he was not beaten, that he would be released in a few days, but ordered the family to go on without him.

On August 2, Oleksiy called a neighbor from the same unknown number to tell his parents that everything was fine with him.

On August 4, Svitlana received a message from a Russian number. The author addressed her as only Oleksiy calls her, but in Russian. This is strange, says Svitlana, because the man speaks only Ukrainian.

Since then no news.

The village of Dolynske was occupied as early as February 24, in the first hours of the large-scale invasion.

Serhiy Khilchenko, the head of the Khrestivsk OTG (Dolynske belongs to it), refused to cooperate with the occupants, and for that he was punished for several weeks. He was cleaning the territory during the day, and spent the night in the so-called "basement". These nights led to the man being in treatment now.

On July 27, the director of the school in the neighboring village, Shevchenky, was brutally beaten and kidnapped in the yard of his own house. He was kept in a prison for a week, tortured, and finally released.

On August 21, Vadym Babaev, a 23-year-old resident of Shevchenky village, was brutally beaten and kidnapped in the middle of the street. It is still unknown where he is now.

Another resident of the Khrestivsk community was beaten for 8 hours just because, when asked about how was life in the region, he answered "like in the occupation."