War in Ukraine. “With Death Around”

Agathe Mahuet, senior reporter at France Info, accompanied by Arthur Gerbault, reporting technician at Radio France, accompanied the gendarmes to Ukraine who were taking DNA samples from the bodies to identify them and also met, in the south of the country, civilian populations directly confronted with the Russian aggressors.

18 French gendarmes have been assigned to investigate “war crimes” committed around kyiv by the Russian army. Two forensic doctors and about fifteen soldiers came to reinforce their Ukrainian counterparts.

Agathe Mahuet and Arthur Gerbault were able to follow this team from the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) in their mobile laboratory, responsible for identifying the victims of the war, and determining the causes of their death in order to respond to the questions from the kyiv prosecutor, but also to relieve the pain of the victims who want justice to be done.

In Agathe Mahuet’s report, we feel the professionalism of these crime scene and body identification experts. They were able to work in good conditions and the prosecution will have convincing evidence.

And then there are the exactions of which we know nothing, the bodies that we imagine and that we do not see. Because the reporters aren’t there, because the humanitarian workers don’t have access to it. This invisible death which arranges the propaganda and which prevents the development of any investigation.

Without the work of the two AP photographers, would the world have understood what was happening in Mariupol? How many Boutcha are there? Do we really know? Between Odessa and Kherson, Agathe and Arthur came close to the lines of Russian occupation, fluctuating lines, just as in the Kharkiv area, there are villages that have been liberated.

And the word pours into the microphones, like a stored overflow. Maria who tells the story of her son, whom the Russians wanted to kill, without bothering to check if he was dead, the sight of blood was enough, but he was conscious and alive. Injured, he crawled, injured, there will remain after-effects and trauma. And yet, the withdrawal of the Russians from their village is a sign.

In the cities of Ukraine which have seen the retreat of Russian soldiers, artists are starting to play again, we come out of the cellars, the clowns perform acts for the children, we want to believe in an imminent end to the war, we cling to this hope , without really knowing what tomorrow will bring.

Death is everywhere around, but it is the survival instinct that dominates and as if to convince the reporters that they really believe in a future, in lasting peace, the Ukrainians we meet invite them to come and spend their holidays here, even when not everything will be like today. Agathe Mahuet has promised to return.