According to self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic “human rights ombudsman” Daria Morozova, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) is abducting Donbas women and subjecting them to torture. Russian media actively disseminated this fake claim this week with RIA Novosti, Vesti, Ukraina.ru and REN TV leading the charge, closely followed by Komsomolskaya Pravda, Moskovskyi Komsomolets, Sputnik, Pravda DNR, Donetskoye Agentstvo Novostey, Reporter, Antifascist, Federalnoye Agentsvo Novostey and others.
Ukraine’s Security Service told StopFake that it is not in the business of kidnapping and torture and the women from Donbas who have been detained are either suspected of or charged with criminal activity.
Morozova claims that presently some forty women are being held by the Ukrainian Security Service and accused of committing nonexistent crimes. She named Daria Mastikasheva, Yulia Prosolova, Nadezhda Kozlova and Olga Agranovich, calling them political prisoners, without offering any evidence or explanation of her claims.
According to Ukrainian authorities, Daria Mastikasheva was detained earlier this summer and charged with treason and illegal arms possession. Yulia Prosolova, who is also in SBU detention, is suspected of placing an explosive device on the vehicle of Mariupol SBU officer Oleksander Kharaberiush resulting in his death.
Russian media portray Nadezhda Kozlova as a victim of SBU torture, claiming that two Ukrainian soldiers attempted to rape her, to save herself Kozlova allegedly blew up a grenade.
In 2014 Kozlova was tried in a Ukrainian court and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. According to Kozlova’s court records, she committed a robbery in Chasiv Yar, (a city in Donetsk province) threatening people with a grenade. The following day, carrying the same grenade, Kozlova asked two unknown men to drive her to the nearest checkpoint. As they were driving, the grenade exploded, killing the two men and seriously wounding Kozlova. The two men were civilians.
Speaking to StopFake about this fake story, the Ukrainian Security Service underscored that they stick to the law in conducting their work. The women mentioned in these latest fakes are all involved in criminal cases, some of which have already been tried and others are pending trial. They were detained according to procedures outlined by the Ukrainian Criminal Code and their detention was sanctioned by the courts, they said.
