Ukrainians in the Czech Republic work to keep alive the memory of one of the war’s most horrific crimes as the fighting back home drags on.
On the fourth anniversary of the Olenivka prison killings last week, around 40 Ukrainian activists commemorated the victims on Prague’s tourist-choked Old Town Square.
At least 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war died on 29 July 2022 when an explosion hit the barracks where they were imprisoned, with an additional 130 injured, an event that UN human rights chief Volker Turk said required investigation for violations of international humanitarian law.
Ukraine blamed separatists and Russian forces for intentionally blowing up the prison in Olenivka village in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region. Russia has denied the accusation, accusing the Ukrainian military of firing a U.S.-made rocket into the prison. An Associated Press investigation and an internal UN report have discounted that version of events and blamed Russia for the attack.
Similar memorial events took place across Europe last week. Despite missile and drone threats cancelling the main gathering, Kyiv’s memorial event drew a large crowd, and a permanent memorial to the Olenivka victims was installed on St. Michael’s Square.
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Author Giselle Lubeck narrates her story, with sounds from the protest and conversations with participants.
The Ukrainian government has designated 28 July as a day of remembrance to honor soldiers and civilians executed or tortured in captivity.
Voices of Ukraine, an initiative made up of Czech-based Ukrainians, organized the event in Prague, like earlier demonstrations in other Czech cities, to draw attention to the prison massacre and many other war crimes committed against Ukrainians since 2014, when Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and backed pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine. Some members have loved ones currently in Russian captivity, prompting them to speak out for improved prisoner-of-war conditions and political support from the Czech Republic in hopes of bringing them home.
Eyes Fixed on Remembrance
In Kyiv, memorial events drew city residents who constantly experience the reality of war. Voices of Ukraine addressed a different audience in Prague of tourists and Czech residents, taking the anniversary as an opportunity to inform the public of human rights violations in Ukraine.
Anastasiia Sihnaievska stood on Old Town Square holding a grayed out photo of a soldier, Serhiy Khavanskykh. Nicknamed “Cowboy” for his love of country music, he was one of the Ukrainian prisoners that died at Olenivka. Sihnaievska, the Voices of Ukraine founder, knew his wife Arina Khavanskykh, then living in Prague.
Sihnaievska started Voices of Ukraine after leaving her hometown of Zhytomyr when the Russian invasion began advancing towards her city early in 2022. When her father joined the Ukrainian army, she came to Prague.
“I wanted to be in a safe place so I could support him and my family instead of becoming someone they would also have to worry about,” she later told Transitions.
Khavanskykh had been captured during the three-month siege in the spring of 2022 of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, a vital economic hub in Ukraine located on the Sea of Azov. He and more than 2,400 soldiers were taken into Russian custody as prisoners of war. Many of them were transferred to the Olenivka facility in the months leading up to the explosion.
“This man was one of the first to be pronounced dead. Ukraine couldn’t have his body and international groups weren’t allowed on the site,” said Sihnaievska.
Khavanskykh’s wife waited an additional year after the attack to receive his remains.
“The Russians could have returned the body but refused. They waited until they wanted to,” Sihnaievska added.
Ukraine and Russia have exchanged POWs throughout the conflict and less often, civilians held in captivity. In 2025, Ukraine brought home 3,180 military personnel and 255 civilians, according to the government. Many more POWs remain in Russian hands. Ukraine’s Media Institute for Human Rights believes that 38 soldiers captured at Azovstal have been convicted or are facing criminal charges in Russia, in addition to many others whose legal status is not known.
‘They Do It Because They Can’
The United Nations has called for an independent investigation into the deaths at Olenivka, saying that under international humanitarian law Russia, as the detaining power, was responsible for ensuring the POWs’ safety and that Russian authorities took steps that impeded independent efforts to secure facts about the explosion.
A separate 2024 UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that Russian authorities had allowed the widespread and systematic use of torture against both civilians and POWs in every part of occupied Ukraine, including acts of sexual violence, citing Olenivka among 20 other sites.
“They do it just because they can, and there is nobody to stop them,” said one Ukrainian at the Prague event, Anton Tsyliurik.
Tsyliurik said Voices of Ukraine organized the rally for the sake of remembrance and to highlight abuses committed against Ukrainians.
More than 150 volunteers assist the four women who head the group, helping organize events, fundraising, and logistics, or simply showing up whenever extra hands are needed, Sihnaievska said.
“Many Ukrainians in the Czech Republic are still waiting for their brothers, sons, relatives, to return,” Sihnaievska said. “They don’t know where they are in Russian captivity.”
As members of Czech society now, group members believe it is their responsibility to be the voice of Ukraine in Czech civic engagement, and achieve this through demonstrations and informing the public.
The Czech Republic has condemned Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine as an act of aggression, and supports investigations into violations of international humanitarian law. As a strong European ally, Czechia has supported Ukrainians through humanitarian aid and by extending temporary protection to more than 300,000 displaced refugees.
Yet, as media coverage of the war dwindles, the Voices of Ukraine and other activist organizations hope to draw public attention back to the conflict to maintain strong political and humanitarian support from Prague. Voices of Ukraine believes that the war is fought in two spaces, the battlefield and the information space, which moves them to counter Russian disinformation by informing the public of the realities in Ukraine through social media campaigns and public demonstrations.
Sihnaievska said, “We want Ukrainians living here to feel that they have a voice – that they can influence public discussion, support their homeland, and stand together as a community.”
Giselle Lubeck is an editorial intern at Transitions who is pursuing a Bachelor’s in Political Science and Mass Communications at the University of South Florida. With particular interests in humanitarian outreach, she focuses her writing on stories that highlight human rights infringements and echo the experiences of people affected by political and social issues.
