The head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, Ivan Fedorov, has claimed that the mayor of the Ukrainian town of Dniproprudne died after being tortured during his captivity by Russia.
In a statement posted on Telegram on December 4, Fedorov said that the body of Yevhen Matveyev was recently returned to Ukraine during a prisoner exchange with Russia. Russia had occupied Dniproprudne in the early days of its invasion, which began in 2022.
Matveyev was captured by Russian forces on March 13, 2022. Last month, Ukraine received the bodies of 502 soldiers and civilians killed, including 17 corpses that had been in morgues in Russia.
“He was held captive by the occupiers for two years and eight months and was tortured to death. During the last exchange, his body was returned to Ukraine,” Fedorov said, offering no further details.
Russian officials have not commented on these claims.
Despite the occupation, Matveyev refused to leave his town and continued working to ensure that services were maintained and that the population stayed informed about events, Fedorov said.
Matveyev’s death highlights the brutal conditions in which Ukrainian officials and civilians have been held by Russia.
In October 2023, a United Nations investigation into Ukraine found that “ongoing war crimes and human rights violations have had an extreme impact on civilians,” including confirmation that “Russian authorities have systematically used torture in several detention centers.”
Ukraine has also been accused of committing war crimes during the conflict, though to a much lesser extent. /REL
