‘Everything is aimed at one goal: to free my son, Vladislav’
Head of the city council of Zaporizhzhya is trying not to panic after soldiers kidnapped his teenage son
Fifteen days since Russian forces kidnapped his teenage son, Oleh Buriak is a man struggling to control his emotions. Mr Buriak, 50, heads the city council of Zaporizhzhya, a city of 750,000 on the Dnipro River in southeastern Ukraine.
Until recently his son Vladislav, 16, was living with Mr Buriak’s ex-wife in nearby Melitopol, a city now under Russian occupation.
After staying in Melitopol during the final stage of his grandfather’s terminal cancer, Vladislav left on April 8 to rejoin his family in Zaporizhzhya. He never arrived.
Mr Buriak now finds himself in an impossible position: desperate to regain his son’s freedom but unable to meet the demands of his captors.
“I am now my son’s only connection to the free world,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“My duty now is to control my emotions and do whatever is necessary and possible to develop different strategies to continue negotiations. Everything is aimed at one goal: to free my son.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the United Nations has documented dozens of enforced disappearances of civilians, while several high-profile officials have been kidnapped, including the mayor of Melitopol.
But to Mr Buriak’s knowledge, his son’s kidnapping is the only case so far of a child being leveraged against a parent.
Kidnapped Ukrainian officials have been pressured to acquiesce to Russian rule in occupied territories and have been asked to help end protests against the invasion, according to Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol, who was freed in a prisoner swap after six days in detention last month.
Mr Buriak will not say what ransom his son’s captors are asking for, only that he has been unable to meet it.
“I am still communicating with them. For security reasons I can’t disclose their demands but I will say that negotiations have reached a dead end. So that’s why I have decided to speak out now.”
Mr Buriak initially hoped to free his son without media attention after Vladislav was detained at a Russian checkpoint by soldiers who were alerted by his patronymic that he was the son of an important regional figure.
With tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russian-controlled territory – many arriving in Zaporizhzhya – Russian checkpoint soldiers search for men with military experience and other high-value targets.
“I think it was unplanned; they check the documents of everyone leaving. The Russian soldiers have tablets with a database of information,” Mr Buriak said, warming his hands around a teapot in a Zaporizhzhya hotel.
Resembling a real-life version of the character played by Liam Neeson in the film Taken, in which a former secret agent must free his kidnapped daughter, Mr Buriak kept a stoic façade that only once appeared close to cracking. When asked to describe his feelings, his steely blue eyes twitched momentarily before he regained composure. “I have a duty to remain in control, not to panic and not to fall into despair,” he said.
“There are still a lot of people who have it much worse than me in this war. Ukrainians who have lost children, or whose children are missing. I don’t understand how these kinds of parents are coping.”
But the strain was apparent on Mr Buriak, who at one point interrupted the interview to ask a drunk man at the lobby bar to be quiet.
Vladislav had been able to speak with his parents over the phone several times and had told them his basic needs were being met.
“He told me yesterday he’s been able to take a shower for the first time and he was washing his underwear by hand,” Mr Buriak said.
Yet Mr Buriak also feared the prolonged detention was taking a toll on his son.
“On our first call he was taking it
‘On the last call he’s become more sober, his voice is more robotic. He’s asking when he’s coming home’
lightly, he felt he was in an adventure,” Mr Buriak said. “On the last call he’s become more sober, his voice is more robotic. He’s asking when he’s coming home.”
And the longer his son is held, the more his father will worry.
“My main concern is that this whole situation might negatively affect my son’s psychological wellbeing,” he said.
“It’s crucial to resolve this as quickly as possible. Every day that he’s detained he may be sustaining trauma. He’s at a sensitive age.
“I want my boy back healthy – physically and mentally; that’s my main concern.”