Russia has for first time confirmed detention and death of Polish national who went missing in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories: due to resistance to SMO
Russia has officially confirmed for the first time that Krzysztof Halos, a Polish citizen who failed to return home after a visit to Ukraine, died in a detention center in Taganrog, Russia, following his arrest on charges of "obstructing a special military operation."
Gazeta Wyborcza reports this, citing an official response from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs received by Halos’s son, according to Censor.NET.
What did they say in Moscow?
The Russian Foreign Ministry has officially responded to the Polish authorities regarding the death of Halos. It claims that the Polish man died of natural causes.
The document, which the Russian authorities also sent to the Polish Embassy in Moscow, stated that Halosa had been arrested in Melitopol for "obstructing a special military operation" and was subsequently transferred to Pretrial Detention Center No. 2 in Taganrog, where he died on July 4, 2023.
The Russians cited "cardiomyopathy of unknown etiology" as the cause of death, which led to the development of "cerebral edema, pulmonary edema, and acute cardiovascular failure, which was the immediate cause of death."Halos was buried "at the expense of the Russian state" in a cemetery in Taganrog.
Despite statements from the Russian side, Halos’s son reported that neither the family nor the Polish authorities had received a death certificate. Consequently, the Polish Embassy in Moscow contacted the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Now the son of the deceased Polish man says that "the most important thing for our family is to ensure our father receives a proper burial and to obtain a death certificate."
More on the Krzysztof Halos case
- Journalists from "Slidstvo.Info" found a photo of Halos from a rally in support of Ukraine in Warsaw. He also had a photo with Ukrainian soldiers, taken in Beryslav, Kherson region, a few days before his disappearance.
- In response to a request from Interpol, Ukrainian police launched a search for the Polish man and discovered that on the morning of April 20, 2023, Krzysztof had been stopped by Ukrainian military personnel. This occurred at a checkpoint in the village of Hryhorivka in the Zaporizhzhia region. The soldiers explained to the foreigner that it was dangerous to continue driving, but he replied that he wanted to drive "to his girlfriend in the temporarily occupied city of Energodar."
- Krzysztof was turned back, but apparently found another way to enter the occupied territory that very same day. The Polish man was detained by Russian military personnel and sent to a pretrial detention center in Taganrog, in the Rostov Region of the Russian Federation. A source for "Slidstvo.Info" in Russia says that Krzysztof’s car was likely hit. Halos later died—presumably from torture.
- The Polish man's niece said that her uncle "kept denying that a real war was going on there (in Ukraine—Ed.), saying it wasn't true".
