Kharkiv teacher dies in pre-trial detention centre in Sevastopol; Russian authorities claim she died by suicide

Oleksandra Kazarovytska, a 44-year-old teacher from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and the co-founder of a language school, has died in a pre-trial detention centre in Russian-annexed Sevastopol, Memorial PZK reported on Thursday, citing a statement posted by the school on Facebook.

According to her colleagues, Kazarovytska’s parents lived in Sevastopol, while she resided in Kharkiv with her grandmother. For a long time, the family would meet in Turkey or Georgia.

Over the summer, she travelled to Sevastopol to help her parents sell their apartment so they could move permanently to Turkey. She was scheduled to return to Kharkiv in September, but was detained by Russian security forces.

Russian authorities discovered messages on her phone with a volunteer, dating back to the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Following her arrest, Kazarovytska was held in solitary confinement for three months while awaiting trial.

Later, her family was informed that she had “died by suicide”. No further details have been provided. She is survived by her husband and daughter.