Detektor’s research brings up the testimony by the Ukrainian civilian Mykola, who claims that Russian forces captured him in Fedorivka, Kyiv region, in March 2022. They held him captive and abused him. Today, his testimony is part of the case against the citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Davor Savičić, who is accused of war crimes committed during the Russian occupation by the Ukrainian prosecution.
The director states that in August 2026, Mykola testified to journalists about the days he spent in captivity and about a man who, as he claimed, commanded the unit that captured him.
“Seven days. I live with those days,” Mykola explained his period in captivity.
According to him, Russian forces took him from Fedorivka in early March, 2022, only a day after his birthday. At that moment, as he said, he believed he would be killed.
“When they were taking me, I realized that was it. I am dead; they will kill me,” he told Detektor.
This portal’s journalists visited him in August 2026 at his home in Fedorivka, about 80 kilometers from Kyiv. For security reasons, Detektor will not disclose his full identity.
He Recognized Savičić from the Photos
Mykola was one of the key witnesses today in a proceeding in Ukraine against Davor Savičić, from Banovići. According to Detektor’s data, Savičić is one of approximately 200 fighters from the Balkans who joined the Russian forces during the war in Ukraine. However, he, according to available information, is the only fighter from the region against whom a procedure is being conducted, which includes accusations of war crimes.
When journalists showed him photos of Savičić, Mykola, as Detektor states, immediately recognized him. “Yes, that is him. He looks the same. It’s him 100 percent,” he said.
“He walked around a village and gave chocolates to children. He was saying: ‘I came from Serbia to set you free.’”
On June 30th, 2026, an indictment was filed against Savičić before the Borodyanka District Court for events that, according to the prosecution, occurred in 2022 in the areas of Fedorivka, Ivankiv, and the surrounding areas.
The proceedings are being led in absentia. The preliminary trial is scheduled for early September, and the indictment states that Savičić is accused of breaking the laws and customs of war, committed with others and pursuant to an agreement.
In August 2026, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed to Detektor that it had issued an arrest warrant for Savičić. However, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not disclose any more details regarding the case.
Savičić did not answer Detektor’s questions.
A Commander of the “Wolves” Unit
Ukrainian authorities have previously stated that Savičić is suspected of brutal treatment of at least two civilians during the occupation of the Kyiv region. According to statements from Ukrainian institutions, Savičić, who held citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Russia at the time of the event, commanded the unit titled “Wolves,” which acted within the private military formation “Redut.”
According to research by the Ukrainian and Russian research team RFE/RL, published in 2022, “Redut” is a fighter recruitment system for units coordinated and financed by the Russian military, including the military intelligence service GRU.
Detektor states that the Ukrainian government assigned him responsibility for the capture and abuse of Mykola, as well as his subsequent interaction.
Bomb behind the Back
According to the official Ukrainian territory list where combat was led, Fedorivka, from February 24 to March 6, 2022, was located in the area of active combat operations. After that, a period of Russian operations followed, which lasted around a month. According to data from the Association of Cities of Ukraine, the entire Ivankiv Community, to which Fedorivka belongs, had been without water, electricity, and heating sincethe beginning of the Russian invasion. Phone and internet connections were cut off for over a month.
Mykola told Detektor that after being captured, they put a hat over his eyes, tied his arms, and dragged him towards the woods.
He claimed they first beat him and then tied him to a tree. They tied his hands with plastic cuffs behind the tree, and placed a grenade with the pin pulled between his back and the tree. “I couldn’t move. Even if it slipped, I didn’t have anywhere to run. It would have simply exploded. I wouldn’t even have those four seconds to react,” he said.
According to his testimony, he stood there between an hour and a half and two hours.
“There was no exit,” he said. This event, according to previous statements of the Ukrainian authorities, is part of the case led against Savičić.
“I learned his voice”
Mykola said that in the beginning he did not know the name of the man who commanded the unit that held him captive. However, during the captivity, as he claimed, he learned his voice. “When you sit there and listen to everything, you learn every voice. You know who comes, who will beat you, and who won’t,” he said.
He claimed he saw Savičić daily, especially when they removed his blindfold and forced him to work.
“He was sitting there, commanding,” Mykola said. During the captivity, according to his testimony, he did not receive food for a couple of days. At the same time, he claimed, they forced him to dig revetments for military vehicles and other pits.
“I told him: ‘ A hungry slave is a bad slave. I did not eat for three or four days. If you want, you can shoot me. Do what you will, but I can’t continue,” he said.
After that, he received a can of food. However, more than the food itself, what remained in his memory were the words he claims Savičić addressed to him. According to Mykola’s testimony, Savičić told him he had orders not to kill him because it was planned for him to appear on television in Rostov.
“Otherwise, I would have killed you a long time ago. You are a burden. You sit in a pit, and people have to look over you. It would be much easier to get rid of you and go to sleep,” said Mykola.
Forced To Pretend To Be the SBU Officer
Mykola claims that the reason he was left alive was a plan to be used in a propaganda TV appearance. According to his testimony, the members of the Russian forces found in his phone a number of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), as well as the photos connected with his mobilization from 2014, at a time when Russia annexed Crimea and when conflicts started in eastern Ukraine.
Because of this, as he claims, they forced him to pose in front of the cameras as an SBU officer allegedly organizing a reconnaissance and sabotage group against Russian forces: “I was never an SBU officer. But if they asked me to say I was, then I told them,” he said.
The segment in which Mykola appears as an alleged SBU officer was broadcast on Russia’s Channel One, one of the country’s most important television channels.
Detektor states it had access to the full broadcast, but won’t publish it in full due to witness protection.
In the same segment, a Ukrainian woman also appeared, who is today also a witness in a case against Savičić. According to statements from the Ukrainian investigators, she was also brought to Savičić during the captivity. According to the investigation, they sought information from her about Ukrainian forces, after which she was forced to participate in a fake interview.
Looking at the recording with Detektor’s journalists, Mykola recognized a wound on his eye. He said he got it immediately before the recording, when one of the soldiers hit him in the head with a foot. The hit, according to his testimony, was so strong that he fell along with a chair in a tent where the segment was filmed.
Seven Days Spent in a Pit
The longer period of his captivity, Mykola, according to his testimony, was spent in a pit in the woods between the Shybene and Krasny Rih areas. His hands were tied, and he shared the space with rats. One of them, as he claims, bit him; after that, he caught it and killed it.
“A guard approached me and asked why I was whining, and asked me: ‘Did you kill a rat?’ Then he hit me in the head with a rifle butt and said: ‘Kill one more, and I will shoot you,’” he recalled.
Mykola also said that during the captivity he had to watch other people being abused.
“They were cutting a man who was still alive next to me, next to the pit. In the start, they were cutting him above me,” he said, adding that he passed out from everything he had seen.
“I had one thought: If they are going to kill me, I just want it to be quickly done.”
However, documenters who later visited the location assessed that some pits were about 90 centimeters deep and that two people were detained in certain pits simultaneously.
According to a report by the Ukrainian Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR), titled “Occupational Hub: Shybene”, detainees were exposed to water from melting snow and rain during cold weather.
The report states that people’s legs went numb, while those who remained in the pits for longer periods had to relieve themselves in the same place.
The MIHR report is the result of two years of documenting war crimes in Shybene and surrounding areas. Researchers used victim testimonies, official documentation, and field mission findings to reconstruct the network of locations where Russian forces held civilians during the occupation of the Kyiv region.
One out of a Hundred Cases for War Crimes
The case against Savičić is part of a wider Ukrainian prosecution of persons convicted for war crimes committed after the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022. According to data from the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine cited by Detektor, Ukrainian prosecutors had by then sent more than 740 war crimes-related indictments to the courts. A total of 206 individuals had been convicted of such acts by November 2025.
In this case, Savičić is outside the reach of the Ukrainian prosecution, which is why the case is being tried in absentia. At the same time, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirming that an arrest warrant has been issued for him demonstrates the broader regional scope of the case.
For now, it is in the court’s hands to determine the validity of the testimony and other evidence collected by the Ukrainian prosecution. The preliminary hearing is scheduled for early September, when the case against Savičić should get a new epilogue.
