“In this hole, it’s my family”, says a resident of Motyzhyn, who attributes the massacres to the Russian army

Igor is squatting overhanging four bodies entangled in the loose earth of a pine forest, on the edge of Motyzhyn, in the suburbs of kyiv (Ukraine). Three days after the first revelations of the atrocities committed in the town of Boutcha, similar massacres were discovered in other towns north of the capital on Tuesday 5 April. This is the case of Motyzhyn, located just a few kilometers south of Boutcha.

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Igor mourns his in-laws there, in particular Olga Surenko, the mayor of the village. His corpse, the shattered skull, is partly covered with sand. “They are scum and fascists. In this hole, it is my family, they are my relatives. They were not soldiers and therefore presented no threat”protests Igor, in tears. “Why were they killed? Because they are Ukrainians! They were great people.”

“Why did the Ruskovs come here? Why did they attack civilians? If the big Western countries don’t want to see the same things happen in their forests, then give us more weapons!”

Igor, close to the Surenko family

at franceinfo

Arrested on March 23 by the Russians, Olga Sourenko, 50, did not want to submit to the invader, like many elected officials from these small occupied towns. “They were tortured. It shows”asserts Oleksandr, a friend of his, who says he is convinced that they were killed when the Russians withdrew. “They were good people. Olga and her son were volunteers, they distributed medicine and food to the elderly in the village.”

A little further on, the body of another man lies at the bottom of a cistern. In total, about twenty inhabitants of Motyzhyn have not given a sign of life since the withdrawal of Russian troops. Excavations of the forest have not yet started.