In Melitopol, the invaders captured Olesya Dorokhova, the acting director of the Melitopol Multidisciplinary Center for Vocational Education.
This was announced by the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova.
After 24 February, Olesya Dorokhova organised a Heart to Heart Help Center on the basis of the educational institution. It was the only Ukrainian humanitarian headquarters in the city to help Melitopol residents and migrants from Mariupol.
In this center, people could get food, necessities, and medicine, volunteers formed packages for single and bedridden patients.
According to Denisova, by kidnapping activists, the occupiers are trying to break the will and resistance of the local population, and as a result - impose the power of terror and fear.
In addition, taking civilian hostages is a direct violation of Art. 3 and Art. 34 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Such actions are also an act of terrorism under the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism and War Crimes under Art. 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Lyudmila Denisova appealed to the UN Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights during the russian military invasion of Ukraine to consider these facts of human rights violations in Ukraine.
As previously reported, a guerrilla war broke out in the russian-occupied city of Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia region). After the arrival of enemy troops in February, Melitopol residents tried to block armoured vehicles and protested. After using force against them, the movement of resistance only gained momentum.