Ukraine: “To Be Silent Is to Let Them Keep Killing”
Why Olenivka’s bereaved families are taking their case to the International Criminal Court.
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Relatives of Olenivka Prisoners Demand Answers
Families remain in the dark as no international organisations have been granted access to the prison in eastern Ukraine where at least 53 people were killed.
When the news broke that dozens of Ukrainians POWs had died in an explosion at the Olenivka prison colony on July 29, 2022, Oleksandra Mazur initially thought her boyfriend had survived.
Yaroslav Otrok, call sign First, was a sapper with the Azov Regiment and had served in Mariupol and at the Azovstal steel plant before he was captured.
“He was on the list of the wounded, which means he was alive. But as it turned out, they had made a mistake,” Mazur told IWPR.
Otrok’s body was later identified by a tattoo and his death was confirmed by a DNA test. He was buried in Ukraine in the summer of 2023.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO), investigations have established that “as a result of the use of an unspecified weapon by Russian occupying forces at the detention facility for Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka, approximately 50 people were killed and 140 were injured”.
Two individuals were charged in 2014 in connection to the incident, with efforts underway to identify other potential perpetrators.
However, their physical absence from Ukrainian jurisdiction means that any verdicts are a distant prospect. United by their grief, the families of the victims decided to build a national coalition to seek legal recourse outside of the country.
“We realised we had to come together and take action,” Mazur said.
The Olenivka Community was registered it as a public organisation, launched social media pages, began filing official requests and searching for legal support. Mazur now serves as head of the organisation.
“I started by researching human rights organisations in Ukraine and we began reaching out,” Mazur said. “Ultimately, we partnered with the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the Regional Center for Human Rights and the Media Initiative for Human Rights. We were then joined by OSINT for Ukraine and Yahad-In Unum. That’s how the six organisations began preparing a submission to the International Criminal Court(ICC).”
The resulting document was “incredibly difficult” to prepare, she continued. Nonetheless, on December 10, 2024, the coalition submitted the report to the ICC.
“We provided the court with over 100 pages of materials, based on everything we could gather remotely,” Mazur said. “It includes extensive interviews with witnesses and findings from open-source intelligence. We did everything we possibly could.”
The Office of the Prosecutor General confirmed that its cooperation with international bodies is ongoing, but stressed its confidential nature.
“According to Part 1, Article 622 of the criminal procedure code of Ukraine, a request for cooperation from the ICC and any documents attached to it are not subject to disclosure, the office replied in a written statement. “The fact that a request has been made and the information it contains, may only be disclosed if and to the extent necessary to fulfill the ICC’s request for cooperation.”
No Formal Procedure
Volodymyr Yavorskyi, programme director of the Centre for Civil Liberties, noted that the Olenivka Community faced many obstacles in their fight for accountability.
“Without any real prospect of arrests and extraditions, Ukraine cannot bring high-ranking officials to justice” he said. At the same time, the avenues for pursuing individuals through international courts were complex.
“The ICC does not have a formal procedure for filing claims,” Yavorskyi continued. “Anyone can submit information to them about alleged crimes – that’s why they even opened a field office in Ukraine. However, the ICC is under no obligation to act on this information and only acknowledges its receipt. The prospect of an investigation is determined at the sole discretion of the ICC prosecutor.”
The situation was further complicated by practical challenges.
“In the Olenivka case, there is virtually no direct evidence and an on-site investigation is impossible,” Yavorskyi said. “It’s crucial for the criminal investigation that Ukrainian investigators handle the work themselves: finding and interviewing witnesses, identifying all personnel who worked at Olenivka and conducting comprehensive forensic examinations on the returned bodies. This is because information gathered by the public does not yet constitute evidence in a criminal case.”
Although the families argue that the international arena has become an key means of keeping the case in the public eye and applying pressure on governments and judicial institutions, Yavorskyi said that the national investigation should take priority.
“The main thing is to mobilise Ukrainian investigators to do everything necessary,” he said, noting that it was their analyses and documented findings that could form the basis for any international proceedings.
The families are clear that their submission to the ICC also represents a symbolic act of resistance, as well as an attempt to seek accountability.
“We keep knocking on doors, because to remain silent is to let them keep killing,” Mazur said,
Adding that the families are also exploring other ways of memorialisation.
July 28 has been officially designated as a day of remembrance to honour Ukrainians killed or tortured in captivity, which the Olenivka Community sees as official state recognition of what happened to their loved ones.
The group also contributed to Olenivka: Crime. Memory. The Broken System, a book based on interviews with released prisoners of war.
Mazur stressed that the community wants to foster a culture of remembrance that extends beyond the legal battle.
“We are united by respect for our loved ones and the desire to ensure they are all remembered,” she continued. “Keeping the memory of Olenivka alive – that is our main goal.”
