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    Russia is disappearing Ukrainian civilians. Their families want answers

    Ukrainians who were held in Russia detail their detention, hoping to help find a teacher still missing. She is one of more than 200 civilians that U.N. human rights workers say Russia has disappeared.
    by Anya Kamenetz Jun 24, 2022 6 minutes
    Iryna Andrusha (left) and Kateryna Andrusha, sister and mother, respectively, of Ukrainian school teacher Viktoria Andrusha, who was taken by Russian forces from the village of Novyi Bykiv in late March.

    Editor's note: This story includes descriptions of violence.

    NOVYI BYKIV, Ukraine — She is fair, and she is stubborn. Those are the words Viktoria Andrusha's mother and sister use to describe her. Russian soldiers took the 25-year-old Ukrainian teacher away in late March.

    Andrusha and her three older sisters grew up in the village of Novyi Bykiv, about 60 miles east of Kyiv. After graduating college, she taught middle school math in Brovary, a suburb closer to the capital.

    Bombs started falling in Brovary almost as soon as the war began. So she went to stay with her parents back in Novyi Bykiv, thinking it would be safer. But no.

    On Feb. 27, Russian soldiers invaded the village. They came to Andrusha's home a month later. Based on some pictures and messages they found on her phone, they accused Andrusha of informing the Ukrainian army about Russian troop movements. And they took her away. She is still missing.

    United Nations over 200 cases of enforced disappearances of civilians between February, when

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