Both victims, according
to Serhiy Redko, first deputy of the Interior Ministry’s criminal investigation
department, had the same cause of death: “combined injuries due to torture and
death by drowning while unconscious.”
Rybak and an unidentified
body were found on April 19 near the town of Raihorodok in the Torets River, a
tributary of Siversky Donets River in Slovyansk District.
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“The opposition Horlivka
deputy who fought the separatists, and who was kidnapped in Horlivka…was found
dead in Siversky Donets (River) near Slovyansk with a backpack filled with sand
around his back and ripped stomach…Not Fascists, not separatists… (but) it was scoundrels
and carrions (who killed him)… who should be obliterated by any means
together with their imperial backers…Heroes never die,” wrote Batkivshchyna
lawmaker Oleksandr Bryhynets on his Facebook page.
According to the Interior
Ministry and local
news reports, based on eyewitness accounts, pro-Kremlin separatists
abducted Rybak around 6 p.m. on April 17 after he took part in a “For a United
Ukraine” demonstration near the Horlivka city council building. An eyewitness
said he had demanded that the so-called “Donetsk Republic” flag be taken down
from the local legislature building, the Interior Ministry stated.
Four masked men dressed
in camouflage forced him into a vehicle and drove off to an unknown
destination, stated the Interior Ministry citing an unnamed witness. Their ski
masks were black-colored, while the city councilman’s mobile phone had been
switched off immediately after the kidnapping.
Moscow-backed militants
started seizing key government buildings in Slovyansk – 65 kilometers apart from Horlivka – on
April 12. The next day suspected Russian special forces ambushed an anti-terrorist team of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) near a
checkpoint leading to Slovyansk, killing an SBU captain and severely injuring
three others, including the group’s leader, a colonel. On April 14, Kremlin-backed
insurgents took the Horlivka police station.
Police say they have
started a criminal investigation for “unlawful imprisonment or kidnapping.”
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached
at rachkevych@kyivpost.com.
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