The key facts

  • Oleksandra Kazarovytska was detained in Russia on her way to Crimea — according to a friend, over correspondence with a Ukrainian volunteer
  • The official version is suicide on October 24; her relatives and friends reject it
  • 'Novaya gazeta Evropa' reports that the death occurred in Vladikavkaz, and the funeral took place in Sevastopol on November 3

What happened

Oleksandra Kazarovytska (Kolesnikova) has died — the 44-year-old co-founder of the Kharkiv private school 'Profesional', who was detained in Russia. Her death in early November was reported by friends and colleagues on social media, but these initial reports contained inaccuracies: it was assumed that the teacher had died in a pre-trial detention facility in Sevastopol, although, as it turned out, she never made it to Crimea.

Circumstances of the detention

The deceased's friend Iryna Salnyk clarified that Oleksandra was traveling not to help her parents sell a house, as stated in the first reports, but to renew her documents. According to the friend, the woman was detained over correspondence on her phone with a Ukrainian volunteer with whom she had been in contact since the start of the full-scale war. She was then held for three months in a single-occupancy cell, where she died; she was buried in Sevastopol. Exactly how Oleksandra entered Russian territory, where she was detained, and in which pre-trial detention facility she was held is unknown. 'Novaya gazeta Evropa', after speaking with the deceased's friends, established that Kazarovytska died in Vladikavkaz, after which her body was brought to her parents in Sevastopol, where she was buried on November 3.

Versions of the death

The official Russian version is suicide on October 24. Her relatives and friends do not believe this and point out that Oleksandra practiced Buddhism, which forbids suicide; representatives of the local Buddhist center attended the funeral in Sevastopol. The deceased's friend Anna Zelenska-Sumkina said she learned from representatives of the center that the woman was found not in the pre-trial detention facility but in a private house 'in a hanged state' — this resembled house arrest. Since news of her death emerged, friends have emphasized that 'Russia killed Oleksandra'.

Who the deceased was

Oleksandra was the daughter of a military officer who, after the collapse of the USSR, joined the Russian army; her parents took Russian citizenship and lived in Sevastopol. After school she went to study in Kharkiv, where she lived and worked. Friends describe her as a patriot of Ukraine who learned the language on her own and became passionate about Ukrainian literature. After the annexation of Crimea, she stopped traveling to the peninsula and met with her parents, who had chosen to stay there, either in Turkey or in Georgia.