The Russians transported the kidnapped 58-year-old entrepreneur from Kakhovka, Oleh Skotar, to a correctional colony in Saratov Oblast of the Russian Federation.
This was reported by the Center for Journalistic Investigations, citing its own sources.
It is known that before the abduction, Oleh Skotar engaged in entrepreneurial activities and provided household services, in particular installing washing machines.
He was abducted in March 2024. According to journalists, the occupation court treated Skotar’s case as that of a Ukrainian citizen because he refused to obtain a Russian passport. As the Russians claim, he allegedly collected information about the movements of Russian military equipment and personnel and passed this data to Ukrainian intelligence.
The verdict states that the man allegedly admitted guilt but refused to testify. He was charged under Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and sentenced to 12 years in a strict-regime penal colony.
Residents of Kakhovka told the CJI that a local resident, Serhiy Chetverhov, who has cooperated with the occupation administration since 2022 and works in the so-called police, is implicated in Skotar’s abduction. According to witnesses, Chetverhov openly declared intentions to “cleanse” the city of people sympathetic to Ukraine.
After the abduction, Oleh Skotar was held in a torture chamber in the village of Odradivka in Kherson Oblast, as well as in Simferopol, Chonhar, and Rostov-on-Don.
It is currently known that the illegally convicted Kherson resident was transferred to strict-regime colony No. 4 in the town of Pugachov, Saratov Oblast, reports the CJI.