Two volunteers missing in Vovchansk: police suspects Russian attack

Two volunteers went missing in the town of Vovchanskst, situated not far from the Ukrainian-Russian border in Kharkiv Oblast, on 10 May. Evidence obtained by the police suggests that Russian forces shot the volunteers, possibly killing one of them.

Source: Suspilne Kharkiv, citing Tamaz Hambarashvili, Head of the Vovchansk City Administration

Quote from Hambarashvili: "We have information that during the first day of mass shelling and evacuation, [two] volunteers travelled to Vovchansk without coordinating their actions with either the police or the [city administration]; they did not know that they should avoid the northern part of the city. We currently do not know where these two volunteers are. They were either caught in shelling and killed or taken prisoner. We do not know."

Details: Hambarashvili said that the NGO the volunteers were working for filed a police report that two of their volunteers had gone missing.

Both volunteers were from Kyiv Oblast and wanted to help evacuate Vovchansk residents. However, they were not coordinating their actions with the local government.

Hambarashvili called on volunteers and everyone who wants to help to coordinate their actions with the local military administration, the police, and the coordination centre in order to avoid situations where volunteers are not fully aware of where they are going and what they are going to do.

Serhii Bolvinov, Kharkiv Oblast Police chief investigator, said that one of the missing volunteers might have been killed.

Quote from Bolvinov: "During fighting in the city, two volunteers drove to Vovchansk in their private car in order to evacuate a local family. But they have disappeared before reaching their destination. We are investigating this case, but unfortunately, preliminary information and eyewitness testimony suggest that the guys were shot by Russian forces. One of them is likely injured, while the other one was killed."

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