When someone is detained, the hardest hours fall not on them but on their family: the phone is silent, nobody explains anything, and what you do before morning decides where they will spend the next two months.

What is happening to the person now

From the moment of actual detention — when the person was stopped and is not being let go — time limits start running that the investigation cannot break.

Scroll the diagram sideways →

Article 278(2) and (3) and Article 211 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine; Article 29 of the Constitution of Ukraine

Everything the family does in the first day has one aim: that at the preventive-measure hearing the defence has arguments and documents, not just pleas.

Step 1. Find out where the person is and who detained them

The official who made the detention must give the person the opportunity to notify relatives immediately of the detention and where they are held — or notify them personally if there is reason to think the detainee's call could harm the investigation. If no call came and the person has disappeared:

• call 102 and ask whether there is information about a detention;
• call the free legal aid hotline 0 800 213 103 — the police must notify the legal aid centre of every detention;
• write down: the authority (police, SBU, State Bureau of Investigation, NABU), the address, the investigator's name, the case number if given, and the time of every conversation.

Article 213(1) and (4) of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine

The exact time the person was actually taken is the most important thing you can know. All time limits run from it, and it is exactly what the investigation most often "shifts" in the record.

Step 2. A lawyer — before the first questioning, not after

A defence lawyer can be engaged not only by the detained person but also by the family — at the suspect's request or with their consent. In practice: you sign an agreement, the lawyer goes to the detained person with a warrant, and the person confirms that they accept this defence lawyer.

Article 48(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine

A free state lawyer will be appointed to a detained person in any case (see A free lawyer: who is entitled). But the legal aid centre appoints them, and the family does not choose who it will be. If you are engaging your own lawyer, do it before the first questioning: what a person says without a lawyer in the first hours is very hard to put right later. What the detained person should do themselves is covered in Detention and the first questioning.

Step 3. You too have the right to remain silent

Relatives are often invited to "just have a chat" or questioned as witnesses — the same evening, while everyone is confused. Remember: no one is obliged to testify about members of their family or close relatives. This is not a refusal to cooperate but your constitutional right, and you cannot be punished for it.

Article 63 of the Constitution of Ukraine; Article 18(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine

If you have already been summoned for questioning, you can come with your own lawyer. More in Summoned as a witness.

Article 66 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine

Step 4. If they come to search your home

Detention often coincides with a search of the home. Before it starts, you must be shown the investigating judge's ruling and given a copy. Do not obstruct, but record everything: who came in, what was seized, whether everything is entered in the record. Your comments and additions must be written into the record before it is signed, and you cannot be prohibited from using a lawyer's help during the search. Step by step — in A search of your home.

Article 236(3) and Article 104(5) of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine

Step 5. Gather documents for the preventive-measure hearing

The court chooses a preventive measure not by the gravity of the charge but by the risks: whether the person will abscond, put pressure on witnesses and so on. At the same time it must assess the strength of social ties, place of residence, work, dependants, reputation and health. All of this is proven with documents — and only the family can gather them while the person is in custody.

Article 178(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine

Bail for a detained person can be paid not only by them but also by someone else — a bail payer. On the amounts of bail and all five preventive measures — Custody, bail or house arrest.

Article 180 and Article 182(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine

Step 6. Preserve what will disappear within days

CCTV recordings — from shops, entrances, petrol stations, dashcams — are overwritten in many systems within just a few days. If the detention took place in the street or on premises, note where the cameras are and pass this on to the lawyer, who can request the footage. The same goes for witnesses: names and phone numbers of people who saw the detention.

What not to do

Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine

It is also best not to:

• discuss the circumstances of the case on the phone or in messengers — see Is your phone tapped?;
• pass on belongings, money or notes through officers, or sign any papers "to speed things up";
• post about the detention on social media before talking to a lawyer. Publicity can be a powerful defence tool — but it is a decision made together with defence counsel, with documents in hand, not in the first hours on emotion.

Frequently asked questions

Can we see the detained person?

In the first hours — as a rule, no: only the defence lawyer talks to them. If the court orders custody, family visits in the pre-trial detention centre are granted with the written permission of the investigator or the court — at least three times a month, lasting one to four hours. The person can meet their defence lawyer confidentially every day from 8:00 to 20:00, and no permission from the investigator is needed.

What if a minor has been detained?

A defence lawyer is mandatory from the moment it is established that the person is a minor, and parents or other legal representatives have the right to take part in the proceedings. Insist on being admitted, and do not leave the child at questioning without a lawyer.

The detained person says they do not need a lawyer. Can we engage one without their consent?

Without the suspect's consent a defence lawyer cannot take part. But "I don't need one" is often said by a person under pressure. A lawyer who arrives under an agreement with the family will ask the detained person themselves — in private.

What if the person was detained by recruitment centre (TCC) staff, not the police?

That is a different procedure — administrative, not criminal. What to do in that case is covered in "Stopped by a TCC notification team".

Article 12 of the Law of Ukraine "On Pre-trial Detention"; Article 52(2)(1), Article 44 and Article 48(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine

In short

• Find out where the person is, and write down the exact time of the actual detention.
• Engage a lawyer before the first questioning — the family has the right to do so.
• Do not give testimony against your relatives yourself — it is your constitutional right.
• Within 1–2 days, gather documents on work, housing, family and health — they decide between custody and home.
• Do not pay anyone anything and do not try to "come to an arrangement".