Stanislav Aseyev

Aseyev was born in Donetsk in 1989. In 2006, he graduated from secondary school in the town of Makiivka and started courses at the Institute of Informatics and Artificial Intelligence of Donetsk National Technical University. There, he earned a master's degree in Religious Studies with Honors in 2012.

His philosophical interests included 20th-century French and German ontology.

According to a biography published in Yunost magazine, after attending the university, Aseyev travelled to Paris, where he applied for service in the French Foreign Legion, then came back to Ukraine and tried many professions such as loader, intern at a bank, grave digger, operator in a mailing company, and shop assistant.{{cite web|title=texts from Yunost magazine on poezia.ru web-site|url=http://www.poezia.ru/works/116220|publisher=poezia.ru|language=ru|access-date=13 June 2017|archive-date=20 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620194901/http://www.poezia.ru/works/116220|url-status=dead}}

File:Stanislav Aseyev and Francis Fukuyama.jpg with Stanyslav Asieiev at Stanford University]]

Aseyev had stayed in Donetsk after it was captured by pro-Russian militants in 2014. He described the war in Donbass and his life under occupation in his novel and journalistic reports.

Aseyev used the pseudonym Stanislav Vasin to report from territories occupied by the Russian military and pro-Russian militants. He used the pseudonym due to widespread persecutions by the Ministry of State Security and different militants' groups of the self-proclaimed DPR. Aseyev's position wasn't clearly pro-Ukrainian (he was often accused by commentators of "a lack of patriotism" or "immaturity of political views"). His reports exposing crimes in the DPR consisted of reports of war crimes of the Republic's militants, Russian activities in Donbass, and pro-Ukrainian resistance.{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}

File:Stanislav Asieiev at the Munich Security Conference.jpg

In 2015 his reports were published by Ukrayinska Pravda. Between 2016 and 2017 he was a correspondent of the Mirror Weekly, a notable Ukrainian newspaper where he published 14 articles. Also in 2016– 2017, he wrote about 50 articles and photo-reports for the US government outlet Radio Liberty.{{cn|date=June 2023}}

Aseyev's last report was for RFE/RL's project Donbass Realities, sent on 2 June 2017 (disputable if it was really written by him or, maybe, under pressure of kidnappers). His Facebook page was active for a while but probably managed by another person.{{cn|date=June 2023}}

Aseyev's mother (living in Makiivka near Donetsk) visited his apartment and saw traces of illegal entry and search.{{cite web|script-title=uk:Зникнення Станіслава Васіна|trans-title=Disappearance of Stanislav Vasin|language=uk|url=https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/28546487.html|publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|accessdate=13 June 2017}}

His fellow student and former MP Yehor Firsov reported Aseyev's disappearance on 6 June accusing Russia-backed militants of kidnapping. Later this was commented on by Security Service of Ukraine, UN Monitoring Mission on Human Rights to Ukraine, Ukraine Journalists Union.

On 16 July 2017, an agent of the DNR's Ministry of State Security confirmed to Aseyev's mother that her son was in their custody and that he was suspected of espionage. Independent media were not allowed to report from the DNR-controlled territory.

In July 2018, Aseyev reportedly began a hunger strike while being imprisoned.{{Cite news|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-blogger-held-by-russia-backed-separatists-declares-hunger-strike/29345248.html|title=Ukrainian Blogger Held By Russia-Backed Separatists Declares Hunger Strike|website=RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty|date=5 July 2018 |language=en|access-date=2 September 2018}}

In October 2019 the Supreme Court of the DNR found Aseyev guilty on charges of organizing an extremist group, espionage and incitement to espionage, and public actions aimed at violating territorial integrity of the DNR; he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. An international campaign, #FreeAseyev, for journalist's release was launched. It was supported by authorities, professional communities and human rights activists, active between 2017 and 2019. Last events of the campaign were held a few weeks before his release on 15 November 2019. People gathered on "Empty chair day" in Kyiv,{{cite news |title=Solidarity Day #FreeAseyev action on November 15th |url=https://imi.org.ua/en/news/solidarity-day-freeaseyev-action-on-november-15th-i30337 |accessdate=11 January 2020 |work=imi.org.ua |publisher=Institute of Mass Information |date=6 November 2019 |language=en-EN}} Lviv, Kramatorsk, New York,{{cite news |title=Empty Chair Day: Day of action to support Stanislav Aseyev |url=https://pen.org/event/empty-chair-day-stanislav-aseyev/ |accessdate=11 January 2020 |work=PEN America |date=11 November 2019 |language=en}} Rome and London.{{cite news |title=Sentsov joins campaign in support of Aseyev in London |url=https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-society/2819578-sentsov-joins-campaign-in-support-of-aseyev-in-london.html |work=www.ukrinform.net |agency=Ukrinform |date=16 November 2019 |language=en}}

Amnesty International, Committee to Protect Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists, Human Rights Watch, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, PEN International, Reporters Without Borders and the United States Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called for his immediate release.{{cite press release | url=https://www.osce.org/representative-on-freedom-of-media/383217 | title=OSCE Representative calls for immediate release of Donetsk journalist Stanislav Aseev one year after his illegal detention | publisher=Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe | date=1 June 2018 | accessdate=3 September 2018}}{{cite news|last=|first=|title=The land of Stas|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/journalists-activists-urge-ukraine-separatists-to-released-detained-reporter/29654134.html|newspaper=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|date=13 December 2018|accessdate=13 December 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2018/08/20/efj-calls-again-for-immediate-release-of-donetsk-journalist-stanislav-aseev/|title=EFJ calls again for immediate release of Donetsk journalist Stanislav Aseev|date=21 August 2018|publisher=European Federation of Journalists|accessdate=5 October 2019|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/ru/news/2017/07/18/306785|title=Украина: Блогер удерживается про-российскими сепаратистами|date=18 July 2017|publisher=Human Rights Watch|accessdate=3 September 2018|language=ru}}{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/press-release/stanislav-aseyevs-detention-aproaches-two-year-mark-amid-global-pleas-for-his-release/|title=Stanislav Aseyev's Detention Approaches Two-Year Mark Amid Global Please for His Release|date=31 May 2019|publisher=PEN America|accessdate=5 October 2019|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-polytics/2793353-us-at-osce-urge-to-release-stanislav-aseyev-and-other-imprisoned-ukrainians.html|title=US at OSCE urges to release Stanislav Aseyev and other imprisoned Ukrainians|date=4 October 2019|publisher=Ukrinform|accessdate=5 October 2019|language=en}} The US Senators Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio have also voiced their support for Aseyev.{{Cite web|url=https://pressroom.rferl.org/a/where-is/30185531.html|title=Where Are...|date=30 September 2019|publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|accessdate=5 October 2019|language=en}}

Stas Aseyev and his less-known colleague Oleh Halaziuk were released (as part of a controversial prison exchange between the DPR, the Luhansk People's Republic and Ukraine) and handed over to Ukrainian authorities on 29 December 2019.{{cite news |last1=Zoria |first1=Yuri |title=Ukraine swaps 127 prisoners including defendants of Maidan massacre to 76 Ukrainians held in occupied Donbas · |url=http://euromaidanpress.com/2019/12/29/ukraine-swaps-87-prisoners-including-suspects-of-maidan-massacre-to-55-ukrainians-held-in-occupied-donbas-live-updates/ |accessdate=11 January 2020 |work=Euromaidan Press |date=29 December 2019}}

File:Stanislav Aseyev with American Senators at the Radio Liberty office in Prague.jpg

After his release, Aseyev took an active social and political position, dealing with the rights of captives of illegal prisons in Russia and on occupied territories. On 29 January 2020, Aseyev delivered a speech at the Council of Europe in which he asked the member states to put pressure on Russia to release the captives.{{Cite web|title=Асєєв у Раді Європи попросив натиснути на Москву|url=https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-society/2866058-aseev-u-radi-evropi-poprosiv-natisnuti-na-moskvu.html|access-date=28 October 2020|website=www.ukrinform.ua|date=30 January 2020 |language=uk}} On 15 February 2020, the journalist spoke at the Munich Security Conference, where he spoke about the inhumane treatment of captives by militants.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=15 February 2020|title=4th Ukrainian Lunch "Ukraine – Moving Ahead" on the Margins of the Munich Security Conference (Live)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO-EYKJFtdo&feature=youtu.be&t=5894|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=YouTube}}

On 14 February 2020, Aseyev met with a group of US senators at Radio Liberty's Prague office to discuss the release of the remaining captives in the occupied territories of Donetsk region.{{Cite news|title=Асєєв попросив сенаторів США сприяти звільненню решти ув'язнених на окупованому Донбасі|url=https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/news-aseev-senatory-ssha-uvyazneni-donbas/30434936.html|access-date=28 October 2020|website=Радіо Свобода|date=14 February 2020 |language=uk|last1=Свобода |first1=Радіо }}

File:Aseyev with Christo Grozev.jpg]]

One and a half years after his release from Izolyatsia prison, Aseyev found out that the chief commandant of the prison - Denis Kulikovsky aka Palych - was living freely in Kyiv. Together with Christo Grozev and retired Ukrainian special services colonel Roman Chervinsky, Aseyev conducted an investigation that led to the discovery of Palych's address in Kyiv and his arrest by the Security Service of Ukraine.

At the moment, Palych-Kulikovsky is serving a 15-year prison sentence to which he was sentenced by a Kyiv court. {{cite web | url=https://www.relativespp.org/en-free-our-relatives/how-isolation-chief-torturer-palych-fell-into-the-hands-of-ukrainian-justice-and-what-happened-afterwards | title=How «Isolation» chief torturer «Palych» fell into the hands of Ukrainian justice and what happened afterwards }}

File:Screenshot from video.png

In 2023, Aseyev joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces as an infantryman. In 2024, Aseyev received a contusion during the fighting in Donbas and underwent rehabilitation in a hospital, after which he returned to the front.{{cite web | url=https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/05/1/7453772/ | title=Ukrainian writer Stanislav Aseyev injured on front line }} Two months later, Aseyev again received a more severe mine-shrapnel wound to his neck and chest, after which he again ended up in the hospital.{{cite web | url=https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainian-writer-aseyev-suffers-shrapnel-injury/ | title=Ukrainian writer-turned-soldier Aseyev suffers shrapnel injuries | date=2 July 2024 }}

In the fall of 2024, Aseyev was demobilized from the ranks of the Ukrainian army based on the fact of his release from captivity. The reason for demobilization was the disbandment of his battalion due to losses and the refusal of the command to transfer Aseyev to the Main Directorate of Intelligence.

He was awarded of the Brigade Cross for his service.{{cite tweet|user=AseyevStanislav|last=Aseyev|first=Stanislav|number=1845532337750069252|title=Dear friends, as you know, our battalion ceased to exist, so I was faced with three options...|date=13 October 2024|url=https://x.com/AseyevStanislav/status/1845532337750069252 }}

File:Stanislav Aseyev on the territory of the Sednaya prison, Syria.jpg

Aseyev became the first Ukrainian journalist to report from the Sednaya death camp in Syria. He arrived in Damascus accompanied by officers of the Main Intelligence Directorate, who were engaged in the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens from Syria. Aseyev then went to Sednaya prison and made a photo report from there, becoming the first Ukrainian to talk about the horrors of the prison under Bashar al-Assad in the national media.{{cite web | url=https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/sednaya-syriya-reportazh-stas-asyeyev/33249654.html | title=Седная – табір смерті імені Башара Асада | work=Радіо Свобода | date=23 December 2024 | last1=Асєєв | first1=Станіслав }}https://x.com/AseyevStanislav/status/1870417651194896465?s=19

Before his illegal capture and imprisonment, Aseyev published a work of prose—the autobiographical novel The Melchior Elephant, or A Man Who Thought (in Russian). It was published for the first time in Moscow in Yunost magazine (#1 — #6, 2015) and the following year it came out in hardback from the publishing house Kayala ({{Langx|uk|Каяла}}) in Kyiv. According to Yunost's editor Yevgeniy Malevich: "his perspective is not a journalist-like, nor a writer-like one, but he's a young philosopher. In his novel Stanislav turns himself inside out, showing the world of a small town and the war that tore the country in half".{{cite web|last=Malevich|first=Yevgeniy|title=Yunost's editor met the students of the Gomel State University|url=http://gp.by/category/education/news52991.html|publisher=Правда Гомель|language=ru}}

File:Aseyev.png]]

While remaining in his native Donbas region from the beginning of Russia-sponsored hostilities there, Aseyev contributed short dispatches on the situation on the ground to prominent Ukrainian and international media, writing under the pen name of Vasin. A book of collected dispatches entitled In Isolation (in Ukrainian and Russian) appeared while he was still in captivity.

Following his release, Aseyev published an autobiographical work entitled The Torture Camp on Paradise Street (in Ukrainian), describing his time in the illegal prison Izoliatsia and the mistreatment and torture prisoners experienced there at the hands of the Russian-controlled administration.

• Free Media Awards 2020{{Cite web|title=Stanislav Aseyev - Ukraina|url=https://frittord.no/nb/priser/free-media-awards/stanislav-aseyev-ukraina|access-date=5 October 2020|website=Fritt Ord|language=nb}}
• National Freedom of Expression Award 2020{{Cite web |date=11 March 2020 |title=Донецький журналіст Асєєв - лауреат Національної премії за захист свободи слова |url=https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-society/3128942-doneckij-zurnalist-aseev-laureat-nacionalnoi-premii-za-zahist-svobodi-slova.html |access-date= |website=Ukrinform |language=uk}}
• Taras Shevchenko National Prize (Shevchenko Award) 2021{{Cite news |last=Морі |first=Євгеній |date=9 March 2021 |title=Шевченківська премія-2021: стали відомі імена переможців |url=https://suspilne.media/111678-sevcenkivska-premia-2021-stali-vidomi-imena-laureativ/? |access-date= |newspaper=Суспільне | Новини |language=uk}}
• Dianna Ortiz Award for Courage 2023{{Cite web |title=Stanislav Aseev Otrimav Premiu za Zahis Prav Ludini v Ukraini ta za ii Mezami |url=https://suspilne.media/485410-stanislav-aseev-otrimav-premiu-za-zahist-prav-ludini-v-ukraini-ta-za-ii-mezami/ |website=suspilne.media}}
• NNW International Film Festival Award "The Door to Freedom"{{Cite tweet |user=AseyevStanislav |last=Aseyev | first=Stanislav |number=1696835029932851662 |title=With gratitude I received the award "The Door to Freedom" of NNW International Film Festival - for courage in fighting for freedom. |date=30 August 2023 |url=https://twitter.com/AseyevStanislav/status/1696835029932851662}}
• Brigade Cross for service{{cite tweet |user=AseyevStanislav |last=Aseyev |first=Stanislav |number=1845540305895936240 |title=I was also awarded the Brigade Cross by its commander, a great honor. |date=13 October 2024 |url=https://x.com/AseyevStanislav/status/1845540305895936240}}
• Freedom Award 2024 https://suspilne.media/crimea/927083-stanislava-aseeva-i-olgu-skripnik-nagorodili-miznarodnou-premieu-freedom-award-2024/

• Шестой день: сб. поэм, рассказов и стихов / Станислав Владимирович Асеев. — Донецк: Норд-Пресс, 2011. — 207 с. — {{ISBN|978-966-380-480-4}}{{cite web|title=Національна бібліотека України імені В. І. Вернадського. Пошук за автором|url=http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?Z21ID=&I21DBN=EC&P21DBN=EC&S21STN=1&S21REF=10&S21FMT=fullwebr&C21COM=S&S21CNR=20&S21P01=0&S21P02=0&S21P03=A=&S21COLORTERMS=1&S21STR=%D0%90%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%B5%D0%B2%20%D0%A1$|publisher=Національна бібліотека України імені В. І. Вернадського}} {{in lang|ru}}
• Андерхилльские ведьмы: драма: в 2 ч. Проза / Станислав Владимирович Асеев. — Донецк: Донбасс, 2011. — 228 с. — {{ISBN|978-617-638-065-8}} {{in lang|ru}}
• Мельхиоровый слон, или Человек, который думал: Роман-автобиография / С. Асеев // Юность. — 2015. — No. 1—6.{{in lang|ru}}
• Мельхиоровый слон, или Человек, который думал: роман-автобиография / Станислав Асеев. — Киев : Каяла, 2016. — 267 с. — {{ISBN|978-617-7390-05-2}} {{in lang|ru}}
• [https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/29275008.html В ізоляції] / Станіслав Асєєв, тексти, фото; передм. Мар'яни Драч, Сергія Рахманіна, Дмитра Крапивенка; ілюстр. Сергія Захарова // К.: Люта справа, 2018. — 208 с. — {{ISBN|978-617-7420-18-6}}
• In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas (2022) translated by Lidia Wolanskyj. Cambridge: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. {{ISBN|978-0-674-26878-4}}
• {{Cite Q|Q107392599|title=Svitlyĭ Shli͡akh: istorii͡a odnoho kont͡staboru|trans-title=Light Path: the history of a concentration camp}}
• {{Cite Q|Q107392497}}
• The Torture Camp on Paradise Street, (2022) translated by Zenia Tompkins and Nina Murray. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. {{ISBN|978-0-674-29107-2}} (hardcover)

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://zn.ua/author/stanislav-vasin Stanislav's author page] on Mirror Weekly web-site
• [https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/28546487.html list of Stanislav's publications on RFE/RL] and editorial message about the disappearance of journalist
• [https://ru.krymr.com/a/video-aseev-pervoe-intervyu/30370878.html the first interview] after

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aseyev, Stanislav}}

Category:1989 births

Category:2010s missing person cases

Category:Living people

Category:Donetsk National Technical University alumni

Category:Free Media Awards winners

Category:Formerly missing Ukrainian people

Category:Ukrainian hunger strikers

Category:Writers from Donetsk

Category:People from Makiivka

Category:People of the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine

Category:Pro-Ukrainian people of the war in Donbas

Category:Ukrainian bloggers

Category:21st-century Ukrainian journalists

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Category:Ukrainian torture victims