On Saturday, March 2, former political prisoner Oleksandr Kostenko went to a meeting with a friend in Kyiv and never showed up again. This was reported by the Crimean Human Rights Group.
“I know that he really wanted to defend Ukraine in this war, he was looking for an opportunity to go to the front, but they only took him to the reserve”,- said his mother Olena Kostenko.
We remind you that Oleksandr Kostenko was detained by Russian security forces on February 5, 2015. According to the so-called charges, Kostenko during the Euromaidan in 2014 in Kyiv allegedly threw a stone at a Berkut employee and injured his arm. Oleksandr Kostenko was accused of paragraph B of part 2 of Article 115 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Intentional infliction of minor bodily harm, which caused a short-term health disorder, committed for reasons of ideological hatred or enmity), part 1 of Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Illegal possession and carrying of firearms and ammunition). After the arrest, Oleksandr Kostenko's arm was broken. The fracture did not heal. Oleksandr Kostenko himself reported that he was systematically beaten by cellmates, and FSB officers mocked him. In August 2018, he was released from prison.