Russian soldiers executed people, "gassed" indiscriminately inhabited buildings, invaded family homes and confiscated mobile phones and computers These are shocking testimonies from Ukrainians who fled their villages when the Russian invader arrived, published by the Guardian.
According to the British medium, online groups set up by relatives and friends of people living in the affected areas are receiving hundreds, or even thousands, of desperate requests for information every day.
One eyewitness, Mikola*, described to the Guardian what happened when the soldiers arrived in Andriivka, a village near Kiev. "They threw grenades into the street. One man lost his leg and the next day this person died Then they went down the main road and started shooting out the windows. They hit a woman, but her children managed to hide."
Mikola lived within walking distance in the village from his brother Dimtro's house: "My brother came out of the house with his hands up. They beat him and executed him in the street."
Dimtro's wife saw her husband's execution from the window. According to her, the Russians killed their neighbour in the same way. Dimtro's daughter, Yulia, believes they were both executed because they had previously helped the Ukrainian army as volunteers.
Mikola said he wanted to bury his brother, but his wife feared they would be shot by Russian soldiers. "The next day they went door to door and took people's mobile phones and laptops." At that point, on March 3, the power was cut off. "Those who came to the house were OK. But they warned us to gather water in our cellar because they were going to start bombing that would last 6 days."
The Russians would not let the family bury Dimitro in the cemetery, so they buried him in the garden. Shortly afterwards, the "hammering" with mortar fire began.
On March 8, Mikola decided to take his family and leave, as the village was left without electricity and telephone signal. His wife tried to approach the soldiers to ask their permission, but they started shooting in the air. The shelling continued, so the family decided to leave without permission. "As we were leaving, they opened fire on the car even though we had written 'children' on the windows with stuck pieces of paper. Apparently they didn't really care who was in the car," says Yula, Micola's niece.
According to her, another fellow villager was killed when a soldier saw him talking on his cell phone with someone from his garden. "Do you realize that some people die just because they call their relatives to tell them they are alive?"
When the Russians entered Druzhnia, another village near Kiev, they fired their guns into houses, according to Sherhi, who left his home. "I think they did this to prevent people from attacking them with Molotov cocktails So all the houses on the main street were hit and some people died. Then they started going door to door. They killed a teacher who was outside feeding her chickens," the Ukrainian told the British newspaper."
"They told people to stay at home and not to go out. If you see us, don't make any sudden movements and put your hands up," Sherhi describes the invaders' "instructions."
On March 10, the Russians agreed to open a humanitarian corridor to evacuate residents of Borodianka and nearby villages. According to Sergi, the shelling was even heavier that day.
Sergi's brother-in-law rode his bicycle to check if there were any Russians on a nearby dirt road. In the end there were none, and the family fled through the forest.
Valeriy, 34, who lives in Kiev and works in the HR department of a company, was at his cottage in the village of Lipivka when the war started. After the Russians occupied a neighboring town, he began receiving anxious messages from relatives and friends of residents who could no longer be contacted. The messages from people desperately seeking information about their loved ones kept increasing. "I started to get scared. Then we heard information that the Russians were destroying high-rise buildings in Borodianca that had people inside with tanks."
And the village of Lipivka stopped having electricity and phone service on March 1, explains Valeriy, who managed to escape amidst bombing two days later.
*All names have been changed by the newspaper for obvious reasons
Source: Proto Thema
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