Halyna Tolochina, a member of the Yahidne village council, struggled to compose herself as she passed the list, written in black on plaster on either side of a green door, in the dark warren where she said she and hundreds of others were confined. To the left of the door were the names of seven people killed by Russian soldiers. On the right were the names of 10 people who died due to the harsh conditions in the basement, he said. “This old man died first,” Tolochina said, pointing to Muzyka D as Dmytro Muzyka, who died on March 9. “He died in the big room, in this.” He said Muzyka’s body was in a boiler room for a few days until, during a bombing break, some people were allowed to carry the dead to be buried in hastily dug graves in the village cemetery. Halyna Tolochina writes on a wall in the basement, with Tamara Klymchuk, on Wednesday. Photo: Marko Đurica / Reuters Reuters spoke to seven Yahweh residents who said a total of at least 20 people had been killed or killed during the Russian occupation. No official death toll has been released by Ukrainian authorities. Reuters was unable to independently verify the villagers’ accounts. Journalists saw a freshly dug grave in a field near the village and two corpses wrapped in white plastic sheets. The Kremlin has not responded to requests for comment on the events in Yahweh. Narratives of what happened in the village add to the growing testimony from Ukrainian civilians of the suffering in the cities around Kyiv during the weeks of occupation by Russian forces. The last victim recorded in the basement walls, Nadiya Budchenko, died on March 28, Tolochina said, two days before Russian troops withdrew from the village after stopping on their way to the Ukrainian capital. In addition to those mostly elderly people who died of exhaustion in the suffocating, cramped conditions, Tolokhina named others who she said were killed by Russian soldiers, including Viktor Shevchenko and his brother Anatoly, known as Tolia. “He was buried in the yard,” he said, pointing to the name Shevchenko V. “And he, they said he was there [buried in the village]somewhere “, he said, pointing to the name Shevchenko T, whose body has not been recovered. Reuters interviewed six other residents, who confirmed Tolochina’s account and described being held in the basement’s bare concrete rooms, with about 60 children, little food or water, no electricity and no toilets. Two of the villagers interviewed by Reuters said that some Russian soldiers, who arrived in early March, behaved well at first, offered to share their rations and expressed surprise at the village’s prosperous appearance. But others immediately began looting. “They started looting, they took everything they could grab,” said Petro Hlystun, 71. “There was a light torch, a tablet computer that my son brought from Poland. They took it all. “ Petro Hlystun in front of destroyed houses in Yahidne. Photo: Marko Đurica / Reuters The villagers said they were ordered on March 5 to enter the basement of the school where they were to spend the next 25 days, with only short breaks to relieve or stretch their legs. The Russian soldiers told them the restriction was for their own protection, the villagers said. They described that they shared buckets for a toilet and slept alternately in small, full rooms as there was not enough space for everyone to lie down. “It was almost impossible for me to breathe,” said Olha Meniaylo, an agronomist who said she was in the basement with her 32-year-old son, his wife and their children – a 4-month-old boy and an 11-year-old girl. She said the Russian soldiers asked for a list of people in the basement to organize food, and she had calculated 360. Two other villagers said there were more than 300 people. “For the elderly, it was difficult to stay there in the dark without fresh air, so it was mostly the elderly who died.” He said the first burials – one man killed by soldiers and four elderly people who died in the basement – took place when Russian soldiers allowed some young people to dig shallow graves. “As soon as they started digging, bombing followed,” Menialo said. “The people who did the digging had to lie on the corpses in the graves to protect themselves from the bombings. My husband was there. “ A woman who had a cow was escorted one morning to get some milk for the children. Others were occasionally expelled according to the whims of Russian soldiers. When they returned to their homes, the villagers found that they had taken everything from televisions to women’s underwear. As soon as the Russians began their withdrawal on March 30, those trapped in the basement were finally able to leave, said Tamara Klymchuk, 64. “We opened the door. “We went out as if we had been born again.” A member of an explosive ordnance disposal team transports a dog to Yahidne. Photo: Marko Đurica / Reuters Yahidne, a small rural village of five streets, was a popular place for people from the nearby town of Chernihiv to take a holiday vacation. It is now a dilapidated ruin of burnt houses scattered with discarded military equipment. “We had a very good life,” said Klymchuk, whose son-in-law was 50-year-old Viktor Shevchenko, one of two brothers whom villagers say were killed by Russian soldiers. “We never thought we would be so sad.” Victor, he said, had stayed behind to guard his home after sending his wife and two children to the school basement. Russian soldiers had told villagers that Victor was wearing a military uniform and was armed with a shotgun. Klimtsuk said she saw Victor’s body after swordsmen buried his body in a mass grave at her request as soon as the city was recaptured by Ukrainian forces. He was wearing blue jeans and a black jacket, he said. “They just shot him in the head,” he said.
