Life Before the Detention

Serhii Ofitserov was born in Kherson. As a child, he moved with his parents to Kamchatka and later obtained Russian citizenship. In 1998, he returned to Ukraine, where he lived on a residence permit.

After 2014, Serhii displayed the Ukrainian national flag on his balcony, listened to Ukrainian music, and switched to speaking Ukrainian. For three years, he attempted to renounce his Russian passport, but due to bureaucratic obstacles, he was unable to do so before the start of the full-scale invasion.

Serhii worked in the trade sector and later in door manufacturing. He led an active lifestyle and was passionate about sports. He practiced kayaking and covered more than 5,000 kilometres along the Dnipro River. Later, he became interested in cycling.

Persecution

Serhii Ofitserov was detained in August 2022 in Kherson. Russian military personnel arrived at his father’s apartment, where Serhii was staying at the time. Armed security forces burst into the premises, forced him to the floor, made him unlock his phone, and took him away in handcuffs. After that, all contact with him was lost.

For several weeks, his relatives had no information about his fate. Later, they learned about Serhii from a man who had been held together with him. Another witness, who was also detained there, stated in a video that Serhii was subjected to constant torture. Serhii is a defendant in the so-called Kherson Nine case. The Russian authorities accuse him and the other detainees of involvement in a “terrorist organisation.”

Behind the Bars

It later became known that Serhii Ofitserov, along with the other detainees, was transferred to temporarily occupied Crimea and then to a Moscow pre-trial detention centre. He was subsequently moved to Rostov-on-Don.
While in Russian captivity, Serhii began to draw. According to his father, the family received approximately 80 of his drawings, including landscapes of Kherson, portraits, and sketches of detention cells.