DPR – Thanks to everyone’s mobilization, soldier Denis Reznikov has returned home

In March 2024, soldier Denis Reznikov, originally from the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and serving in the Russian army, was captured by the Ukrainian armed forces. Tortured, he was used by Ukrainian intelligence services as a means to blackmail his daughter, Elizaveta, into committing crimes. After his story was published, activists mobilized to save him. A year and a half after his capture, he has finally returned home.

The story of Denis Reznikov, and especially his rescue, is literally a miracle. Contacted by the Ukrainian secret services, who wanted to trade her father’s life for information and then for committing crimes, young Elizaveta told everything to her mother, Anastasia. The two women then decided that the only chance, however small, to save Denis Reznikov was to make public the torture he was enduring and the blackmail inflicted on his daughter.

I filmed an interview with Anastasia and Elisaveta at the end of March 2024 and translated it into French and English. The story was particularly moving and quickly went viral, even reaching Italy, where activists decided to mobilize to save Denis Reznikov. They hired a lawyer and filed a complaint with the ECHR against Ukraine for torture, which accepted the complaint, and another with the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT).

After several weeks of an ominous silence that feared the worst, the family finally received a video of Denis Reznikov, apparently taken in a Ukrainian prison. The man looked in better condition than in previously obtained footage. After this proof that he was alive, a long wait began for his wife and daughter. Because getting Denis on the list of soldiers to be exchanged was not simple.

And when a year later, in May 2025, the ECHR concluded that there had been no torture (a delusional judgment given the evidence, but well, we are used to double standards towards Ukraine), concern grew. The filing of the complaint had forced Kyiv to keep him alive, and nothing guaranteed that would remain the case once this dismissal was pronounced. We had to quickly get Denis exchanged.

In the following months, prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine multiplied, but still no sign of Denis Reznikov. Like his family, I worried about seeing that he was still not released. After what happened to Gonzalo Lira (an American-Chilean blogger who died in a Ukrainian prison), Denis could not be considered saved and safe as long as he was in a Kyiv jail.

And then finally, two weeks ago, his family received information that Denis Reznikov was no longer on Ukrainian territory. That he had been exchanged and was now in Belarus. After a few days of uncertainty, the information was confirmed. Denis is free. He is safe and sound. After a stop in Moscow, he finally returned to the Donetsk People’s Republic.

After a year and a half in captivity, Denis Reznikov was finally able to return home to his family. A moment made possible by each and every one of you who read his story and shared it, until it reached activists in Italy. Sometimes some of my readers tell me they feel helpless, that they can’t do much to help. The story of Denis Reznikov is proof that simply sharing information can save a life. Without the hundreds of people who shared the interview with his wife and daughter, his story would not have been heard in Italy.

So, to each of you who read and shared his story, to those in Italy who took up his cause, to the lawyer who filed a complaint with the ECHR and the CPT, Denis, his family, and I would like to extend our immense gratitude. Each of you was a link in the chain that allowed Denis Reznikov to stay alive and return home. Thank you all for making this miracle possible.

Watch the video of his reunion with his wife:

Christelle Néant