At Least Sixteen People Missing in East Ukraine

The Kyiv Post is keeping a tally on the people kidnapped in east Ukraine. As of Wednesday afternoon the total is up to 16. The number includes journalists and politicians.

American journalist Simon Ostrovsky, with VICE News, was taken early Tuesday morning. Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk, said Ostrovsky is doing well and the captors are feeding him. He told Alexander Marquandt of ABC News that Ostrovsky spread false information.

Sloviansk mayor holding @SimonOstrovsky told us Simon was spreading false, one-sided info. “Now he needs to learn a lesson.” #Ukraine

— Alexander Marquardt (@MarquardtA) April 23, 2014

On Tuesday afternoon, the body of Ukrainian Deputy Volodymyr Rybak was found with a sandbag around his body and his stomach slashed open. He was reported missing last Wednesday.

Here are a few other people who are missing.

April 22 -Yuriy Zahrebelny, prosecutor of Sloviansk, was reportedly kidnapped in his office at about 5:50 p.m. by a group of three armed and masked men, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said on April 23. They brought him by car in an unknown direction and released in some 40 minutes later. Zahrebelny refused to disclose the details of his interrogation, the police said.

April 20 – Irma Krat, 29, the editor-in-chief of Hidden Truth TV and the leader of an all-female self-defense unit during the EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted the former government and President Viktor Yanukovych, was captured around 8 p.m. on Easter Sunday, Krat’s lawyer, Oleg Veremiyenko, told the Kyiv Post. Krat was “taken hostage,” Veremiyenko said, on suspicion of torturing and killing a Berkut riot police officer. She is reportedly being held in the Ukrainian State Security Service building in Sloviansk. The day after her capture, the pro-Russian separatist group holding her paraded her to meet the press, during which time she confirmed she was being held but said that she had not been harmed.

April 13 – Artem Deynega, a Sloviansk resident, was kidnapped by unknown persons after he was observed filming from the balcony of his family’s apartment. The apartment is across the street from the Ukrainian State Security Service building in Sloviansk. Deynega’s whereabouts are unknown.

Sloviansk and Horlivka, cities in Donetsk Oblast, have seen the most violence between pro-Russian forces and pro-Ukrainians. A shootout occurred early Saturday morning, which left at least three people dead. The pro-Russians claim Ukraine forces attacked them because US money and a business card for the leader of the Right Sector party was found at the scene.