PART 4 A YEAR AFTER: MAIN VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CRIMEA ment o7 ce in Simferopol. As a result of negotiations several days after the abduc- tion, on March 20, they were released near Chongar. ‘In our car there was also a guy with his legs shot. Then, he was taken to a hospital because his wounds began to fester. After that, the guys were tortured and interrogated for several days. And fortunately, that night we + nally were taken away.’ From Aleksey Gritsenko’s interview to UNN agency on March 20, 2014 Yury Gruzinov and Yaroslav Pilunsky Yury Gruzinov and Yaroslav Pilunsky were abducted on March 16, 2014 the day of so-called ‘referendum’ in Simferopol. Yury Gruzinov is a cameraman, a Russian citizen who R lmed the events of Maidan and was wounded by a law enforcement o7 cer on Grushevsky street in Kyiv. Yaro- slav Pilunsky is a well-known Ukrainian cameraman. Both were the members of the Babylon 13 Cinematographers Association which R lmed the protests at the Maidan Nezalezhnosty in Kyiv, the Crimean events, and then the eastern Ukraine hostilities. They were asked to come to one of the election polling stations from where they were abducted. ‘The self-defense perceived us to be very suspicious. Besides, we had no ac- creditation. They applied force and pulled us in the street and loaded us sep- arately into separate vehicles. Then we saw weapons. There were 10-12 men. Eventually, we were taken to the headquarters.’ From the interview with Yaroslav Pilunsky, TSN, March 22, 2014 After the talk, the cameramen were about to be released, but the captors learned that Yaroslav’s father was Leonid Pilun- sky, the VR ARC deputy who opposed the referendum. The cameramen of the Creative Associa- tion ‘Babylon 13’ were placed in diT erent rooms without windows. For several days, they were held captives in Chongar; Yury Pictured: Yury Gruzinov and Yaroslav Gruzinov was tortured and repeatedly Pilunsky beaten. 64