{{quotebox-float|"Inside the sports complex-turned temporary torture prison, Igor says the sack over his head was replaced with a blindfold, leaving him so he could only see his legs.
A Ukrainian businessman who had long worked in transportation [[logistics ]] – including stints in [[Moscow]] – a story typical of many Ukrainians, since returning to Kiev, Igor had maintained business ties to Moscow and Crimea, which had joined the Russian Federation after a successful referendum in 2014.
Several family members, including his mother, live in Russia and he regularly visited them until relations between the two countries reached a boiling point in 2021. “With the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the events of February 24, my mother started to call me very often because she was very afraid of my status,” he told me.