Together with his daughter Irina, Vladimir returned to the ruins of the house where they lived with Oleg, his son-in-law. Both testify to the hell they experienced on March 5, 2022 in Boutcha. The small town located about thirty kilometers from kyiv was occupied by the Russian army from the end of February. The scenes of massacre that were discovered there after his departure prompted the opening of a war crimes investigation.
That morning, Vladimir, Irina and Oleg are at home when they see a military column arriving. After an explosion, machine gun fire is heard, they are ordered out. “Where are the Nazis? Give their address! We are Russians, we have come to liberate you”, tell them the soldiers.
“They took my son-in-law Oleg, took off his clothes. They took him around the corner, they put him on his knees, and they shot him in the head.”
Vladimir, a resident of Bouchain “Special Envoy”
On the asphalt, at the place they point out to the journalists, traces of blood, and even a bullet. Why this execution? Irina does not know: her husband had not even done his military service, he was a perfectly civilian. “peaceful”, she assures. He was taken away without a word of explanation. She was unable to have her body removed, which lay on the sidewalk for a month. Today she says “live as she can, but no longer know why”.
This hell from which they are barely emerging, the father and the daughter recount in Russian. Vladimir was born in Russia. But of the inhabitants of this country, he says today: “I don’t consider them my people anymore. They’re not my people, they’re enemies if they allow themselves to do such things. We don’t have the same blood anymore.”
Extract from “In the hell of Boutcha”, a report to see in “Special Envoy” on April 14, 2022.
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