A Ukrainian fixer, who assisted as a guide and interpreter for Radio France teams at the end of February and the beginning of March in Ukraine, was kidnapped and tortured for nine days by the Russian army, reports Reporters without borders, Monday, March 21, after being alerted to his disappearance by Radio France on March 8. Radio France did not wish to communicate publicly about this disappearance for security reasons.
The association, which obtained the testimony of this 32-year-old man, will send this information to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in addition to the two complaints that RSF has already sent to it, on March 4 and 16.
Kidnapped on March 5, Nikita* was detained for nine days and tells RSF of the machine-gunning, electric shocks, beatings with iron bars and mock executions he suffered. The association claims to have “checked” the story of the thirty-something. “Nikita gives us a chilling testimony which confirms the intensity of the war crimes perpetrated by the Russian army against journalists”underlines Christophe Deloire, secretary general of RSF.
Sheltered today in a Ukrainian town, the man described by Reporters Without Borders as “miraculous”, a lawyer by training, has been a regular fixer and interpreter for foreign media since 2013. He has notably worked for teams from France 2, BFMTV and RFI. In February 2022, from the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Nikita devotes herself fully to her activity as a fixer and collaborates with Radio France.
It was the French public radio group that alerted Reporters Without Borders to the fixer’s disappearance on March 8. After his release, the association was able to contact him with the help of the Center for Freedom of the Press opened in Lviv. His testimony was collected by the association on March 17 and 18, before being corroborated by interviews with a member of his family, one of his former fellow prisoners and two journalists from Radio France.
*His first name has been changed for security reasons.