SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project investigates and reports attacks on higher education with the aim of raising awareness, generating advocacy, and increasing protection for scholars, students, and academic communities. Starting July 1, 2026, SAR no longer publishes reports for the incidents that it records. SAR continues to monitor and record incidents that will be used in the annual Free to Think report. This page provides a record of incidents reported up to that date. Learn more about the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project.

Date of Incident: June 04, 2022

Attack Types: Imprisonment | Other

Institution(s):Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University

Region & Country:Europe | Ukraine

New or Ongoing:New Incident

On June 4, 2022, Russian forces detained Ivan Mrynskyi, Dean of the agronomy faculty at Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University (KhDAEU), during a search of the university.

Sources do not indicate why Russian soldiers took Mrynskyi into their custody. According to Holos Ukrayiny, soldiers held Mrysnkyi for two days before releasing him. The same report noted that he was ordered to refrain from leaving the region.

Scholars at Risk is concerned about soldiers carrying out a search of higher education institution and detaining a scholar. Military forces must refrain from arbitrary detentions of civilians and must respect civilian infrastructure, including higher education institutions.

Sources:
*SAR identified this incident in data made publicly available by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
http://www.golos.com.ua/article/362609
https://www.facebook.com/serge.danylov/posts/pfbid0zgwG6yqdidRaH1dtCP6PS3zjQz9bkEG9MaLHJh8adCnHNnX1D6tMbXJfZvsX66nZl
https://most.ks.ua/news/url/u_hersoni_rosijski_okupanti_vikrali_naukovtsja_ivana_mrinskogo