VYŠNEVE/DYMER The colors of early summer are incredibly bright. On the quiet village road, the only reminders of life are the storks building their nests and the elderly lounging on the benches in front of the houses.
You should find Natalija somewhere here.
We knock on a few doors and soon we hear: it turns out that Natalija is a couple of houses away at her mother-in-law’s house.
Half an hour later Natalija Herasymenko and his mother-in-law Vira Maslak are sitting in the room. It’s a family party, and the whole family is invited to lunch.
Everyone is there except Andri.
The soldiers asked the mother about Andri’s past. The man had previously fought in the Donbass in eastern Ukraine, but for the last few years he had been living his everyday life at home.
According to the mother, the Russians clearly knew who they were looking for. But Andri wasn’t there.
A hundred meters away at Andri’s home, the soldiers ordered Natalia and the daughters behind the house. Andri was taken out the front door.
He has not been seen since.
A large number of people has disappeared across Ukraine since Russia launched a war of aggression. One can assume that some died as a result of the fighting, but Russian soldiers have also captured people as prisoners.
It is impossible to get exact numbers of such cases, as the situation in the occupied territories is chaotic. Cases have been investigated mainly in northern Ukraine and the Kyiv region, where the Russian troops withdrew in April.
Human rights organizations and authorities collect evidence of disappearances. If a person is imprisoned without reason or kidnapped, it can be a war crime.
In total, by the end of May, Ukrainian police statistics had more than 6,000 reported missing. Experts and human rights organizations believe that the real numbers are significantly higher.
Russia has also transferred prisoners across the border. Some have initially been sent to so-called filtering camps.
Russia has denied the filtering camps and abductions.
Andri’s home village is located in northern Ukraine near the border with Belarus.
It is only a couple of kilometers away from the road along which Russian troops rolled into Ukraine starting on February 24. The road leads to the city of Chernihiv and from there to Kyiv.
Russian troops settled in the school of the neighboring village of Vyšneve and brought heavy military equipment to the fields. Part of the fire aimed at Chernihiv was fired from here.
The gravel road to school is bumpy. The doors leading to the basement of the stone building are open. At the end of the stairs, a maze-like space opens up.
The family believes that Andrik was brought to school.
When the family went to the school after the disappearance to ask about Andri, the Russian soldiers said that he had been transferred to another place for questioning.
Soon after this, the Russians left.
– Maybe he was taken too, the mother thinks.
Disappearances terrorize communities and traumatize the loved ones of the disappeared. According to experts, it is systematic warfare.
The families still do not give up hope. Many people look for their loved ones on various internet forums and discussion groups.
Ukraine and Russia have exchanged prisoners of war, but the missing person’s name can only be added to it if he is known to be alive and in Russia. In general, there is little help for searches.
You hear about missing family members in Ukraine everywhere the Russians have been.
Dymer, located north of Kyiv, 70 kilometers west of Vyšneve, was occupied for a month. The city’s fate is in the same series as the better known Butša and Irpin. Destruction, sadness, death and the lost.
Regional administration employee Svitlana Denisova comes out of the town hall with a list in his hand. 47 names are recorded in it. All those listed disappeared in the spring in the Dymer area.
They are quite ordinary people, many of whom went out to do things and disappeared along the way.
When the occupiers withdrew, the city authorities began to compile a list of the missing.
Who disappeared, where was he last seen, who is looking for him. Most of those on the list are young men.
– There are volunteers in the group who distributed food to others. It seems that the occupiers took everyone who happened to come across, says Denisova.
A few of those listed have been released, but they have been reluctant to talk. Ukrainian authorities may also be silent about the cases for their own reasons.
It is known that in Dymer, prisoners were kept at least at the local window factory. They have been there told (you switch to another service) about the brutal treatment of prisoners, violence and interrogations.
We start calling list through.
He’s gone, there’s nothing else to say.
Some people say more.
A few have almost certain information that the missing person has ended up in Russia. Such a case is, for example, number 37 on the list. His relative has received information from a Ukrainian released from the same prison.
Finally the phone is answered Olha Shvadchenko. He lives nearby and is willing to talk.
Shvadchenko let us into the fenced yard. It’s getting late and there are mosquitoes.
The father of the family Serhi disappeared when he went to register at Dymer Town Hall for food assistance.
Russian soldiers are said to be looking for tattoos and gun marks from Ukrainians.
According to Shvadchenko, her husband had neither. Serhi was in civilian clothes. He set off with two of his friends.
The Russians withdrew from Dymer shortly after Serhi disappeared.
– I only have doubts. There is talk that people are being taken to Russia. Maybe he is a prisoner there, Shvadchenko says.
The man was blindfolded throughout his imprisonment, but he told Anatoli that he recognized the place from the pattern on the ceiling. He could see through the gap in the ceiling bandage.
The brothers were also picked up from home. The eyes were blindfolded. They were moved to a large hall where other prisoners were kept. The soldiers interrogated them for three days. After that they were taken to the edge of the forest.
Was Andri too with a saw? No one can know for sure.
It is known that the Russians searched for certain Ukrainians in nearby villages and captured those who caught them. People with a military background have been searched for in various parts of Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian government, Russian forces have also systematically kidnapped family members of Ukrainian soldiers in the occupied territories.
Some of the prisoners have been released later, such as the farmer Yuri Illienko. He was also picked up from his home.
We can’t find Illienko, but we leave the number for his neighbors. Later, Illienko calls back.
He says that at first the Russians told him to dig a grave for himself. They fired at it, but no fatal shot was fired.
Illienko never found out where he was being held. Probably close to his home village, because the place felt familiar even though the Russian soldiers had blindfolded him.
From somewhere I could hear the clucking of a chicken, he says.
Illienko suspects that someone in the village did not like him and lured the soldiers into his home. Russians have been reported to take advantage of the disadvantaged, such as alcoholics and drug addicts. They can be made to tell about the past of others.
Finally, Anatoli leads us to the field next to the sawmill.
There are empty missile boxes on the wrong side of the gate. A network of trenches has been dug on the side of the road.
From here, the Russians ravaged the nearby city of Chernihiv for weeks.
One unidentified body with a ring on his finger was also found at the sawmill.