🧵See the nickname on that door? This is the door in the basement of local school in Yahidne, Chernihiv region, Ukraine. 300+ locals were kept there by Russian soldiers in inhuman conditions for 26 days. This tag allowed me to find the woman who left it and she told me her story.
They were kept in this basement from March 4rd till March 31rd. See the names right and left of the "calendar"? On the right are those who died in the basement itself, on the left – those who were killed by Russians or died "upstairs" during the shelling.
Evgeniya is the name of the woman. By the time Russians came in she lived in Yahidne with her family, including grandfather who recently had a stroke and was unable to move. They all survived, but 10 people in the basement died from hunger, lack of fresh air and medications.
Nearly all Russian soldiers who kept them in the basement were from Tuva, republic in south-central Siberia, one of the poorest and least-developed regions of Russia. Ukrainian authorities claim they collected evidence to charge at least 9 of them.
Some of them have recent posts on VK like nothing happened (archive.ph/c0cZJ). None of them replied to my messages: why keep 300 civilians together? They all had their own houses with basements, where they used to hide from shelling before.
Russian soldiers provided their prisoners with the minimum amounts of food and water. The first elderly man in the basement died a week after it all started. "He just didn’t wake up when we tried to give him some food", – says Valeriya.
Soldiers didn't allow to bury all the bodies immediately after the death. They only allowed to bring them to this boiler room, giving their clearance when at least 5 bodies were "accumulated" there.
When Russians had to retreat from Chernihiv, many of those kept in this "basement of death" were able to walk out for the first tome in 26 days – just to find their houses destroyed and totally looted.
Now the whole family is in Germany. They want to return, but Yahidne is still being shelled. They lost almost everything but saved their lives. I know It’s on the brink of ethical for me, but if you want to help them – PayPal leralepekha03@gmail.com.
And please read full story here (use google translate). Things like that should never happen again. svoboda.org/a/podval-smert…
Story continues: two of the guys accused by UA prosecutor's office in atrocities in Yahidne are already dead, as I was told by the wife of Nazyty Mongush. She confirmed her husband was there too, but he is alive.
She rejects accusations on behalf of her husband: "They fed them [civilians in Yahidne]. Our husbands won’t hurt a fly. My husband cried when he saw how they have to live: shops were closed, he helped one guy to find the diapers for his son".
She says some guys from the list never have been to Yahidne. "Probably Ukraine got this list when their car was bombed".
There’s one more interesting detail: Russian command also investigated the case of Yahidne, but found that soldiers are not guilty.
After this fruitful conversation she deleted some of her messages and closed her VK, as well as did her husband, and said she will report me to FSB ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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