International institutions are unable to help punish those responsible for Russian crime against Azov prisoners in Olenivka

Ukrainian women demonstrating in Kyiv on July 28th, 2024. Banner reads as: "Captivity - hell, Olenivka 28-29.07.2022". Photo: Henry Kravchenko / Shutterstock

On July 29th, it will be three years since the planned explosion that killed 53 and wounded about 130 more Mariupol defenders from the Azov Regiment. After their ordered surrender in May 2022, they were held by the Russians in a penal colony in the village of Olenivka in Donetsk Oblast. From the moment when the information about the crime became public, the families of the prisoners who were held in the barracks where the explosion took place have been fighting for the punishment of the perpetrators and the return of the remaining Azov prisoners from captivity. We talked about the organization’s activities with Oleksandra Mazur, a representative of the “Olenivka Community” association. This group brings together the relatives of prisoners of war from the Azov Regiment who became the victims of Russian war crimes in Olenivka.

KATERYNA PRYSHCHEPA: On the eve of the third anniversary of the execution of Ukrainian prisoners in the Olenivka colony, what is the situation concerning the investigation of the crime and the actions to bring those responsible to justice?

OLEKSANDRA MAZUR: Now we are still waiting for the return home of those who were in that barracks in Olenivka at the time of the execution and survived. This is a priority…

Do you have any estimates of the number of such prisoners?

Unfortunately, all the figures are only estimations. There were about 200 people in the barracks, and most of them are still in captivity. Some have returned, fortunately, but not all of them. Their return is a priority.

Then I would like to ask a basic question. Has the entire list of those killed in those barracks been established?

There is a list of the dead whose identities have been confirmed by DNA analysis in Ukraine and who have been buried. We know them for sure. These are the people whose bodies were transferred to Ukraine. But we have doubts whether this list is exhaustive, because no organizations or experts not affiliated with the Russian authorities were allowed to visit the crime scene.

Once the list of the killed is established and the prisoners are returned, it is important to conduct an independent investigation. As of now, unfortunately, there is no international mechanism to hold Russia accountable. There is the International Criminal Court, and from mid-2023 to December 2024, that is till the end of last year, we worked to collect all possible information about this crime. We did this in cooperation with several other organizations – the Media Initiative for Human Rights, the Ukrainian Helsinki Union, the Regional Centre for Human Rights, Yahad in Unum (the principle task of this organization is collecting testimonies of Nazi crimes), and OSINT for Ukraine. We collected evidence that could be gathered without being at the crime scene – eyewitness testimonies, analysis of available images of the crime scene, and so on.

Based on the materials we collected, in December last year we prepared and filed a case with the International Criminal Court. But the thing is that the International Criminal Court does not have to respond to us. That is, there are no deadlines for them to respond within a certain period of time. They may not answer us at all. And it turns out that for the moment we have no other mechanisms for punishing Russia, no institution where we could hand over our materials for investigation.

Do you have any contacts with representatives of the state authorities in Ukraine who are involved in investigating and prosecuting the Olenivka case?

We have had some contacts, but as far as the case is concerned, we know as much as the general public. That is, what the state institutions openly comment on. When we presented the case that we have submitted to the ICC, I believe it was already in January this year, there were also representatives of the state institutions present there. But if we are talking about our work, we prepared this case without them, only between our organizations.

That is, we are not the only organization dealing with the case of Olenivka. We just unite all the others working on it. There are things that only we can do, we have set ourselves tasks in line with this. If others are doing something, we simply disseminate this information or cooperate so that the information is not lost, and people who would like to know something about Olenivka can contact us for information or simply look through our pages. We do the work of memorialization and conservation, of collecting information in one place.

Apart from the ICC, what other possible international institutions could the case of Olenivka be brought to?

If an international tribunal on the war in Ukraine is established, our case will also be within its competence. But so far, our experience with international organizations has not been satisfactory. In 2023, we travelled to Switzerland. In particular, I spoke at the UN and met with the people from the International Committee of the Red Cross at its headquarters. My conclusion after those meetings was that it was all just some kind of stage decoration. Before our trip, I had hoped that our visit and our address would change something. After that meeting at the UN, where I and the sister of Ihpor Prokopenko, one of the Azov POWs killed in Olenivka, were given the floor to speak, we were approached by officials from different countries in a full hall. They came up to us and expressed their sympathy, but this did not translate into any action, nothing serious or professional. I don’t need sympathy, I need results. And there was no result. 

Did you receive any support from foreign organizations or institutions?

On the contrary. Last year, in the autumn, for example, we contacted the embassy of Canada, and we had an online meeting with the ambassador of Canada to Ukraine. She said that she supported us and was also working on this issue. During this meeting, we gave her the list of prisoners who were in that barracks in Olenivka at the time of the explosion who survived and were still in captivity, and asked her to distribute the list, to mention these names in public spaces. She didn’t do this and never contacted us again.

And then there are the meetings for the families of the victims, which also seem like simple decoration. When people gather, they have a buffet meal and that’s it. There are no initiatives to make any effective project. In Ukraine, we can work on memorialization on our own, but it is very difficult for us to make our way abroad. And, for example, if we are talking about embassies, they should be the ones who help us enter their countries with our information, not organize an exhibition in our country. We can do it ourselves in our country.

Do you know exactly how many of the prisoners who were in the barracks at the time of the explosion and survived are still in captivity?

About a hundred people. This is also a problem, because the list of those who were in that barracks and survived is also inaccurate. The list of prisoners from Azovstal should have been recorded by the Red Cross. But even this is a problem. For example, my boyfriend was recorded, so we were lucky in this regard. But Ihor Prokopenko, whom I mentioned, was not registered by the Red Cross, because they did not come to work that day.

Ihor was seen in that barracks by eyewitnesses, and this is how the fact of him being there was initially confirmed.

What are Ukrainian government agencies doing to spread the information?

Not enough. From the very beginning, we offered the state authorities, including the foreign minister, our cooperation. Now it just seems irrelevant, because the number of active people in our association is decreasing, and it just turns out that one person takes on more things. And I, for example, don’t have enough time and can’t knock on all these closed doors anymore. This opportunity to support the state institutions’ work was just lost. And when the news is “not new”, it will not attract an audience either, let’s say. That is, the time was lost. And when I talk to other public persons, NGOs representatives, just active people, they also emphasize this problem: when you want to interact with the state apparatus, they often drag their feet and time is simply lost. I mean, it’s a pity that we waste resources this way. And the same, by the way, is true for other families of fallen soldiers I speak to. The state institutions did not want to cooperate with us with the memorialization or disseminating information abroad. The families of the prisoners are also not satisfied with the official communication.

For several years now, we have been trying to get a Day of Remembrance of Executed Prisoners established in Ukraine. This is a long story that has been going on since 2023. We created a petition, gained the required number of votes and sent it to all to Ukrainian MPs. Only one of them responded – Anatolii Ostapenko. He registered a draft resolution, but it has been under consideration since 2023. For example, I spoke about this topic at a meeting with Iryna Vereshchuk. The girls from our organization raised everything at the meeting with Yermak and Budanov. And no one denies that we need such a day. They all support it, but do nothing.

There was a statement by the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian Policy, Nikita Poturaev, that the establishment of such a day would overload the calendar. Our work with the Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Anton Drobovych, has not gone badly. Now we are hoping to get in touch with Oleksandr Alfyorov, who has just been appointed head of the UINM. He told us in advance that he would be ready for a meeting in a few weeks.

Do you as an organization have any contacts with Azov, which is now expanding from a brigade to a corps?

We maintain certain contacts. For example, they had a project in which they recorded interviews with mothers of Azov soldiers. I asked them to record an interview with the mother of my boyfriend Yaroslav Bais. They responded and recorded the interview. That is, there is no such thing as us asking them and not getting an answer. But our most persistent requests are not to Azov, but to the state. For example, Azov also supports the establishment of a Remembrance Day.

What else would you like to see done to memorialize the victims?

Obviously, memorials and monuments will be installed, and serious work is needed here, because we’ve got some problems there as well. There was a story in Kremenchuk, where very large funds were allocated for a memorial alley dedicated to fallen soldiers, for its arrangement and installing banners with portraits. The banners installed are of very poor quality. As someone explained to me, they used the cheapest printing technology, and the alley itself was not properly arranged. There are large garbage containers near it, and the pavement there is broken. Since my boyfriend is from Kremenchuk and his mother lives there now, we and the family of another soldier who was killed in that barracks insisted on getting things done properly. The city authorities promised that they would arrange everything there this year. We’ll have to check how things are going now. Since we have people from different cities, we need to make sure that everything is done correctly in each city. Of course, I know the general situation with the military cemetery near Kyiv, and what kind of gravestones are planned to be installed there, they should be unified, done properly of good quality materials, and so on.

We also started producing our own merchandise. Recently, the artist Nitika Titov gave us a design that we used to make pins to attach to clothes and backpacks. We are now selling them.

Do you plan to raise money for other projects by selling merchandise?

The sums of money we collect with the pin sales are very small. We will spend all the money received from sales on the production of the next batch of merchandise.

So you are trying to create a visual presence?

Yes. We realize that we can’t do something big, but we’re not going to stop anyway.

Do you meet often in the organization now?

No, not often. We usually meet when we have some work to do together. When there is a meeting, we go to Kyiv together. We all live in different cities.

How many active members do you have now?

Our most active members are the founders of the organization, that is, those who founded the NGO, five people. However, we have members from about 160 families. These are the families of those who died, those who were captured, and those who have been released in a prisoners’ exchange and returned home. In addition to our organization, many of our members are also involved in various local organizations. As I mentioned, my boyfriend’s mother lives in Kremenchuk, and they have a local organization (for family members of KIA and POW soldiers – ed.). There are five of us who are constantly working on social media and translating materials. And basically, if there is a task, we can share it between five people.

Our team is small, and each of us also does other things. Of the five of us, two are wives of POWs. The husband of one of our five had been fortunately released last autumn, and Ksenia and I are the two who have lost loved ones. The families of the prisoners are under a lot of stress because they have no information, they don’t know what to hope for. And, of course, this greatly affects their ability to work. Maria, whose husband has returned, is now prioritizing her husband’s rehabilitation. Of course, there are so many things to do, and we just can’t work like people who get paid. So everything is slow, but from time to time we plan and implement something. And I think that since we are going to stay working on this for years, we will eventually get what we plan to do. For the moment, we are very much invested in this plan to establish a Remembrance Day, because if we don’t finalize it now, the idea will simply be lost. If we are distracted by other things, it will simply become irrelevant and disappear. And memorialization in our view is the key point of our work. After the Remembrance Day is established, we can start working on the next projects, maybe some smaller things.

Do you set yourself any intermediate or longtime goals in your work?

We have no specific plans because it is difficult to predict the situation in Ukraine for any considerable time, we just keep working all the time without pause.

Our main goal is to have a constant presence in the information sphere. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but the main thing is not to stop, not to treat it as a project that can close when one of us gets tired.

We have a project where we publish memories of each of the victims on their birthdays. Recently, it was the birthday of Bohdan Hryshkevych, who died in the barracks. We published his story, and the design included his photo and story, also with information in English. By the way, we translate everything into English for foreigners. I really like this project, as we show people not some abstract Olenivka, but specific people on their birthday. I think this project will exist from year to year. Stories will change and memories will change. There will be other memories, other people, and other acquaintances with stories about the same people, and different picture designs, but it will be a constant presence.

You mentioned that you are currently raising funds to support the Belarusian Volunteer Corps. How did you start working with them?

I once wrote directly to their commander asking him to share our materials about Olenivka, and he did. After that, I wanted to support them as well and eventually offered to organize a fundraiser for them, and after it was completed, I continued to work with them. Belarusian volunteers in Ukraine deserve support. For example, if captured, they are likely to be killed in Russian captivity or sent to a prison in Belarus. Therefore, I also urge our government to speed up the process of legalization and granting citizenship for them, which will partially protect them in such a situation.

A few days after recording of this interview the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine established the Day of Remembrance of Ukrainians who died in captivity. The Memorial Day was held for the first time on July 28th, 2025, and is dedicated to the memory of prisoners of war – both military and civilian.

Oleksandra Mazur is a representative of the “Olenivka Community” association.

Kateryna Pryshchepa is a Ukrainian journalist and a contributing editor with New Eastern Europe.

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civil society, POWs, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine at war, Ukrainian society