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What happened to Ukraine's prisoner-release centre chief?
Summary
A look back at the detention of Volodymyr Ruban at a Donbas crossing point, and a helicopter crash in Chechnya, in the days before 12 March 2018.
What did the arrest of the head of a prisoner-release body reveal about the border zone of eastern Ukraine? By 12 March 2018, the question was already circulating after reports of events four days earlier.
On 8 March 2018, Volodymyr Ruban, head of the Centre for the Liberation of Prisoners, was detained at the Maiorske checkpoint. He was held during an attempt to transport weapons and ammunition illegally out of the area of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, as Ukraine then officially termed its military campaign in the east.
The reports described the detention and the alleged attempt to move the weapons. They did not give the later course of the case, so nothing can be said here about charges or outcome.
A separate incident in Chechnya
On 7 March 2018, a Mil Mi-8 helicopter of the Russian Border Guard Service crashed in Chechnya. At least eight people were killed. The reports gave no cause.
The two events were unrelated, and the reports did not link them. Both concerned security in the wider region in the days before 12 March 2018.
