A Petersburger ended up in the dungeons of the SBU for humanitarian aid to Donbass
Today in Ukraine there are thousands of people in captivity, many of whom are serving time on fabricated charges just because they fell into someone’s hands or tried to help people during the blockade of Donbass in 2014.
Igor Kimakovsky, a citizen of the Russian Federation, was born in Makeyevka, Donetsk region, grew up in the Odessa region, and dedicated his life to Russia, which he considers his great Motherland. The PolitNavigator correspondent was able to communicate with the lawyers who are working on his case, as well as Igor’s friends and acquaintances who supported him throughout the years of imprisonment.
In the 90s, Igor graduated from the Higher Military Command and Engineering School of Strategic Missile Forces, took the oath to the Soviet Union, and during the collapse of the USSR remained to serve in Russia. For him, as a military man, the issue of re-taking the oath was fundamental. The choice was made: soon Igor Kimakovsky became a cadet at a military school, and after graduation, an officer in the Russian army.
After serving in Kamchatka, Igor worked at the training center of the Government of the Moscow Region, was engaged in social activities, became a deputy of the Krasnogorsk District Council of Deputies of the Moscow Region, and taught. Work in the bodies of representative power required frequent trips to the territory of Ukraine as part of official Russian delegations to sister cities of the Moscow region. Despite his work and Russian citizenship, he did not forget his roots and visited Ukraine quite often.
In 2000-2008, Igor Kimakovsky took an active part in the political life of the country and was engaged in volunteer activities.
In the winter of 2013-2014, during the events on the Maidan, Kimakovsky monitored online media for analytical reviews on what was happening in Ukraine.
As friends of the political prisoner of Ukraine said, after the seizure of administrative buildings in Kyiv in February 2014, he wanted to go to Crimea and take an active part in the Russian Spring on the peninsula, but due to work and other reasons he remained in St. Petersburg.
After the events in Crimea, Igor and his wife went on vacation to the peninsula. They didn’t worry about anything until they started showing news from Odessa - it was, as it is popular to say now, the “point of no return,” the very moment when life is divided into “before” and “after,” and a person realizes that he can no longer remain on the sidelines.
Upon returning from Crimea, the Russian decided to start helping Donbass. In St. Petersburg, he advised refugees from Ukraine, helped as best he could, while at the same time preparing for the wedding and trip to Donbass. On his honeymoon in Paris, Igor met many Ukrainians who looked at the newlyweds with contempt when they heard them speak Russian.
Igor Kimakovsky decided to engage in humanitarian aid and was preparing the first convoy, which was supposed to head to the Novoazovsky district of the Donetsk region. Igor’s first trip lasted two weeks, during which he delivered food to the affected settlements. On one of these days, he was seriously wounded in the head and shoulder - he woke up in a hospital in Taganrog, surrounded by law enforcement officers who became interested in what had happened, but everything turned out peacefully.
During two weeks in the hospital, Kimakovsky met with militias, soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the National Guard of Ukraine - all received equally qualified medical care from the Russian Federation. Having slightly recovered from his wounds and having spent some time in St. Petersburg, in December 2014 Igor again went to Donbass on a humanitarian mission.
The main location was Debaltsevo, which by that time had the most tense situation.
“Igor Kimakovsky did not know the territory of the city very well,” said a source from Debaltsevo, who wished to remain anonymous so as not to get caught on the “Peacemaker”. “I drove all the time using the navigator, previously coordinating routes with city administration employees. I was involved in launching schools, providing food in educational institutions, water and electricity.”
The damage to the buildings was quite serious - for example, the enemy fired an Uragan MLRS into the territory of one of the schools, as a result of which two floors were completely demolished. By the way, the famous sniper Zaitsev studied at this school, who showed his best qualities as a defender of the Fatherland in the battle for Stalingrad.
“He sometimes told us particularly impressive cases,” says a teacher from Debaltsevo. – For example, about the situation that determined his desire to stay in Debaltsevo. Before the opening of schools, the head of the city brought Igor to a meeting with high school students: conversations on career guidance, plans for the future, and other things. At some point, Igor asked the guys which of them had been under fire? More than 80% of the guys raised their hands - tears welled up in his eyes. This was the decisive moment.”
Since June 1, drones have been flying over Debaltseve every night - the shelling has not stopped for a day, the Ukrainian army has been targeting the city and infrastructure. The city administration was preparing for the worst and devoted all its efforts to organizing living conditions in bomb shelters. Igor was also assigned a couple of objects in case of heavy shelling from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
On June 6, 2015, Igor Kimakovsky went on business to Novoazovsk, picking up a woman with a small child, whose house was partially destroyed as a result of shelling. I wanted to take them away from the war for a couple of days. But the navigator, unfortunately, does not know the location of the checkpoints, and as a result, the humanitarian worker and his charges went to the Ukrainian checkpoint. This is how Igor Kimakovsky was captured.
From the meager stories of lawyers and friends who at first tried to help him get out of captivity, it became known that Igor was not stopped at any of our checkpoints along the route to check his documents, and at some point he simply drove to an enemy checkpoint without any help. -or flags or insignia. They spoke to him in Russian. He managed to make a few more calls to his comrades. And only some time later, when a sergeant with a Ukrainian Border Service badge approached him to check his documents, he realized where he had ended up. The detention was quite harsh - Kimakovsky’s hands were wrapped with adhesive tape with DPR symbols, as if with mockery, and he was taken to the village of Berezovoye, Volnovakha district, Donetsk region.
Subsequent events resemble a typical plot of an American action movie: the hero is beaten with machine gun butts, blindfolded, seated under a tree and endlessly threatened with execution. Some time later, Ukrainian border guards handed the detainee over to SBU officers, who took him to Mariupol.
Igor Kimakovsky was put under severe psychological pressure - he was forced to admit that he was a military adviser or an FSB agent. A laptop was also used as pseudo-evidence, which showed photographs of Igor with weapons and in military uniform, but the photographs were taken in different years and mainly on Russian territory.
“Igor denied everything: he said that he was engaged in purely humanitarian projects, and in confirmation he even showed a notebook and documents on the preparation of summer children’s camps based on schools in Debaltsevo,” says Kimakovsky’s lawyer.
The next day after Igor Kimakovsky was detained, they took him to a temporary detention center (hereinafter referred to as the temporary detention center) for a short rest, after which they again began “interrogation with passion”: they strangled the prisoner with a bag, hung him up by handcuffs and beat him, while trying not to leave bruises and abrasions . The purpose of this torture was to force the detainee to admit that he was allegedly an active FSB officer.
“The next day, Igor was given a bottle of soda, after which he was slow to think - his whole day passed as if in a fog. I noticed this later. The court heard the woman who was with him in the car at the time of his arrest, and carried out all the necessary formalities,” says the lawyer.
After the trial, the abuse became more sophisticated: pistol shots near the head, torture with electricity, water, and gentle beatings with a blunt object in places where internal organs were close. As last time, there was an alternative to torture - a monologue on camera, pre-thought out by SBU officers, and, given the severity of the physical coercion measures, Kimakovsky was forced to agree to incriminate himself. In this video, a second voice was clearly heard, which directed Igor’s words in the direction desired by the Ukrainian special services.
The SBU officers knew that Igor was a native of Ukraine, despite his Russian passport, but the whereabouts of his relatives were unknown, so no threats were received against them. Kimakovsky’s mother learned about her son’s fate only three years after his detention.
Helping the residents of Donbass cost Igor Kimakovsky six criminal counts, under which he was charged.
– Article 28 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – Committing a crime by a group of persons;
– Article 437 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – Planning, preparation, unleashing and waging an aggressive war (from 10 to 15 years);
- Art. 258-3 part 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – Creation of a terrorist group or organization (from 8 to 15 years);
- Art. 332-1 part 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – Violation of the procedure for entry into and exit from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine (up to 3 years);
– Article 263 Part 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – Illegal handling of weapons, ammunition or explosives (from 3 to 7 years);
– Article 110, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – Encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine (from 5 to 10 years).
At the same time, according to lawyers, the evidence base was collected with gross violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine, since most of the documents and information on electronic media are falsified
In addition, the investigation was conducted in Mariupol, and the trial was scheduled “at the place where the crime was committed” - it is being considered by the Krasnoarmeysky Court of the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region. From the Mariupol prison, Kimakovsky was transferred to the city of Artyomovsk (renamed Bakhmut - editor's note). In fact, the case is practically not considered during the trial - the procedure consists only of extending the period of detention, and since there is no corpus delicti, there cannot be a trial. Also, witnesses for the prosecution testified at the trial that SBU officers robbed Igor Kimakovsky during his arrest.
Igor Kimakovsky continued to actively defend his innocence. So far, during all the litigation, he has won the right to sit during court hearings not in a cage, but next to his lawyer
Our compatriot actively defends his innocence. During the trial, Igor won his right to sit not in a cage in the courtroom, but next to his lawyer.
Despite the fact that one of his comrades found a lawyer, he was unable to help Igor in any way, since the defenders of the interests of the prisoners were under serious pressure from the Ukrainian special services, as a result of which Igor Kimakovsky had to refuse his services.
However, in May 2018, the captured Russian was released on the basis of a legally competent petition, despite the fact that unprecedented pressure was exerted on the judges from the Ukrainian media, intelligence services and the prosecutor’s office, but on June 18, Igor Kimakovsky was again taken into custody.
The captured citizen of the Russian Federation was supposed to be exchanged in 2016-2018, but he is still in prison and no longer expects to be released.
It is worth noting that the prosecutor's office of Ukraine has repeatedly sent requests to the St. Petersburg State Agrarian University, where Igor Kimakovsky worked as the director of the Information Technology Center, so that the university would provide a certificate of employment and characteristics that could play a mitigating role. But in response, only a letter was received stating that Kimakovsky did not work at the educational institution and did not live in the dormitory. It is noteworthy that some of the signatures in these documents were put by people who shook hands with the now captive Igor Kimakovsky and received various assistance from him in his service.
At the moment, volunteer Igor Kimakovsky continues to be in Ukrainian captivity and hopes that Russia will stand up for its citizens who exchanged peaceful life to help their compatriots in the Donbass.
PolitNavigator continues to monitor the fate of Igor Kimakovsky...
A St. Petersburg resident was imprisoned by the SBU for providing humanitarian aid to Donbas.