Missing in Ukraine - Urgent help required.

A version of the story below was published by the Sunday Mail in Scotland yesterday. It's about Oleksey Suprun who has been missing in Kiev for over two weeks now. Indeed, hundreds of people have gone missing in Ukraine recently. Please read and share with others and help find this man.

Thanks for your time,

Billy Briggs.

www.billybriggs.co.uk

Billy Briggs and Amy MacKinnon

The father of a Ukrainian student in Glasgow is among hundreds of people missing in Kiev as the nation’s political crisis escalates.

Alise Suprun appealed for urgent help to find her father Oleksey who was last seen two weeks ago.

The 23-year-old post graduate student at Glasgow University spoke to the Sunday Mail as Ukraine descended into chaos.

There are unverified reports of Ukrainians having been abducted and tortured by men with Russian accents.

Protests in Kiev began last November after President Yanukovych rejected an agreement with the EU in favour of closer ties with Russia.

According to human rights group EuroMaidan SOS at least 90 people have been killed and 292 are missing since violence erupted.

Oleksey, 58, was last seen walking through Druzhba Narodov park in Kiev with his friend Sergei Testov on the 16^th February.

The pair regularly visited the park on weekends.

But when Oleksey did not return home by late evening his wife raised the alarm.

Alise said: “It’s a city park, so people walk there. It’s quite crowded on weekends. When the police arrived later, they didn’t find anything, any trace. Nobody heard anything, nothing suspicious.”

Oleksey’s car containing his mobile phone and identification documents was found at the northern edge of the park.

But the families of both men have not heard anything from them since their disappearance.

Alise said policing in Kiev is in “complete chaos.”

After her mother Tatyana reported her husband missing the police opened a missing person’s case.

But Alise said policing in Kiev is in “complete chaos.”.

She said: “When my mother reported it, they came the next day to investigate the surrounding area, and then after Monday she couldn’t contact the police officer responsible for the case for one week. She was calling over and over, and she was going to the police department to talk to him and he never appeared…people were just saying, ‘He’s not in his office’ or ‘He’s busy’… She just couldn’t contact him at all. Eventually when she reached him on the phone, he just shouted at her, ‘Woman, why are you calling me so much, I don’t have time to talk to you. I will talk to you later.’ My Mum wrote a report to change the person who has the case, but there has been no result.”

 After Oleksey had been missing for 11 days Tatyana was informed that all details of the case had been lost.

Oleksey is an engineer by profession and Alise cannot think of any reason why anyone would wish to harm him.

She said: “He is not rich or a famous politician. He had a party ticket [membership] during communist times, but he was not an active member. You know in those times if you didn’t have a party ticket you couldn’t be successful in any sphere. But as far as I know he was never really interested in politics.”

Alise believes her father’s friend may have had some political connections but she is unsure if had any involvement in the protests.

Without the help of police Alise and her mother have had to search for Oleksey on their own.

Alise said: “I have been calling hospitals and morgues. But there is such chaos that even hospitals say that they have lots of people who are unconscious and without [identification] documents, so they cannot say right now. [My mother] is looking for him, so she is doing something every day. She is going to different places, contacting different people, (and) different friends to help her.”

A plea for help and a photograph of Oleksey which Alise posted on her Facebook page has been shared almost 900 times.

Civil society organisations are desperately trying to piece together what has happened to the dead, wounded and missing in Kiev.

EuroMaidan SOS was established in November 2013 after the authorities attempted to disperse protestors from Independence Square in central Kiev.

The square is also known as Maidan.

EuroMaidan SOS is a collection of human rights activists, lawyers and journalists, that seeks to support protesters in Kiev and throughout Ukraine.

Dozens of appeals for information are posted on the EuroMaidan SOS Facebook page every day by people looking for information on loved ones killed or injured.

With 90 people dead and 292 people missing there are many rumours in Kiev.

Alice said: “There were rumours that some people were, if I can say, kidnapped, and they were just taking men from Kiev and bringing them outside of Kiev, so that they couldn’t got to Maidan… well, I don’t know.”

ENDS.