Ukrainian Opposition Activist Reported Missing

A prominent Ukrainian opposition activist has been reported missing in Kiev following the apparent abductions of two other opponents of President Viktor Yanukovych, one of whom was found dead.

Dmytro Bulatov is a 35-year-old activist from the Avtomaidan group, car drivers who hold motorcade protests against Yanukovych. He was reported missing by his wife late Thursday, Kiev police said.

Bulatov's disappearance came after the two-month protests escalated into deadly clashes with police and as other activists were going into hiding or even leaving the country.

Activists are "really concerned about Dmytro Bulatov's disappearance," Sergiy Klein, another Avtomaidan member, told Agence France Presse, adding that he himself had left Ukraine for Germany on Thursday.

Activists wrote on social networking websites that Bulatov, who acts as a spokesman for Avtomaidan, had stopped responding to phone calls on Wednesday.

Bulatov had told the Ukrainska Pravda website on Wednesday that his car and the front door to his apartment had been vandalized and he hinted that he expected further reprisals.

"If something happens to me, there would be even more outrage," he said.

Ukraine last week passed a slew of anti-protest laws, one of which makes it illegal for five cars to travel in a motorcade, apparently targeting Avtomaidan.

Avtomaidan has organised several motorcades of over a thousand cars that protested near Yanukovych's sprawling country estate in Mezhygirya outside Kiev.

Bulatov's disappearance comes after two other activists, Igor Lutsenko and Yuriy Verbytsky, were reportedly abducted on Tuesday.

Verbytsky was found dead in a forest near Kiev Thursday, while Lutsenko survived a severe beating.

Rights groups meanwhile accused Ukrainian police of maiming detained protesters and singling out journalists.

"Nothing can justify the vicious beatings we've documented," said Human Rights Watch researcher Yulia Gorbunova in a statement Friday. The group said riot police officers tortured a 17-year-old protester who had been taking pictures of this week's clashes on his cell phone.

Last month Tetyana Chornovol, an opposition journalist who is also active in Avtomaidan, was beaten on the head and in the face in a brutal attack she linked to her investigative reports.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a media rights watchdog, said earlier this week that police had assaulted and detained journalists, ignoring their press attire and accreditation.

Several Avtomaidan members wrote on social networking sites of their fears of persecution by the authorities.

"A real war was declared against us," Avtomaidan member Olexiy Grytsenko wrote on Facebook.

Fellow Avtomaidan member Sergiy Koba said on Facebook that he had fled Ukraine to avoid prison.

"Those who remain in Ukraine have turned off their cell phones to avoid being tracked," Avtomaidan's Klein told AFP.

He said Bulatov's mobile phone is on but nobody is answering, and police could be tracking other protesters who attempt to get in touch with him.