Wks after Russian withdrawal, Bogdanivka doesn’t look like a battlefield; rather, a crime scene. Broken gates and cracked safes. Shallow graves, burned down houses and other destroyed evidence. Soldiers raped and murdered here — I’ve talked to the victims🧵meduza.io/en/feature/202…
A courtyard in Bogdanivka is scattered with baby shoes. A dead puppy’s been slowly decomposing in the grass. In the corner there’s a freshly undug grave. Here, Ukrainian police recovered the body of Alexey Zdorovets 
On 03/09 Russian soldiers killed Zdorovets, then repeatedly raped his wife — threatening harm to their 3yo son if she resisted. Then buried Alexey’s body in the yard outside the house, shot the puppy and burned down the home
Before resorting to violence, one of the rapists — never setting aside his assault rifle — tried to flirt with the victim. And even asked her to befriend him on social media. That’s how we know his name — Mikhail Romanov, who might be a contract soldier from the town of Chebarkul
War caught Svetlana Perminova’s family at their house in Bogdanivka. When the occupation started, Svetlana’s pregnant daughter had managed to escape the village through an evacuation corridor. Then Svetlana’s husband ventured out and didn’t come back. Svetlana was left home alone
On 03/28, 3 armed soldiers appeared on her property. First they searched the house for food. Then one of them noticed the bed. “He pointed at it and said, ‘Look what a good bed for fucking on,’” said Svetlana. “And that was it: I backed into a corner and then they just raped me”
Afterward, Perminova wrestled with thoughts of suicide. “I’d already made a noose,” said Svetlana. “How did I stop? When was getting ready to hang myself, my phone buzzed — either Viber or Telegram — and I came to my senses: ‘What about my daughter? She’d never survive this’”
On 04/02, Svetlana’s daughter gave birth to a boy. On 04/16, they buried their husband and father — the night he left the house he was captured by Russian troops, then tortured and killed. “I’m a lost soul now,” Svetlana says. “I don’t have the strength even to hold my grandson“
Here’s a wooden ladder leading to the pit of a pump room in Alexey Rudenko’s backyard in Bogdanivka. Several people can fit on the brick-lined floor if they all stay standing. On 03/09, Alexey was thrown down there with his wife and 10yo daughter
The soldiers closed the hatch for 2 minutes, then opened it again. “Got any cigarettes?” one of them asked. When they learned that Rudenko had run out of cigarettes, they killed him. He died right there in his young daughter’s arms. His wife held his hand until it went cold
If you go to the village today, you’ll still see the words “Civilians. Checked” written on gates outside people’s homes in Bogdanivka. After Russian troops made their rounds, they left these notes throughout the village. All the while promising not to harm its residents
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