Russian terror in the village of Yahidne in the Chernihiv region

Russians occupied the small village of Yahidne in the Chernihiv region for almost a month. Locals call it “Bucha of Chernihiv.” The invaders shot unarmed civilians and destroyed their homes, holding nearly the entire village hostage in inhumane conditions.

The Russians set up their headquarters at the local school premises and forced up to 400 people to the basement. The youngest was three months old, and the oldest was 93 years old.

The Russians almost never let anyone out of the basement. They forced everyone into the school’s basement at gunpoint and with the threat of execution. In total, more than three hundred people were kept in uninhabitable premises. More than ten of them died from unbearable conditions. People lacked space, many could not even lie down, so they had to sleep sitting down. They were glad even to have regular cardboard to sit on. There was not enough air for everyone, so people made holes in the walls to breathe.

Tamara, a local resident, says: “There were 360 of us there; there was no venting. We lacked oxygen; people fainted from lack of air. People were dying of lack of air. Russians took all the people from all over the village, both nondisabled and disabled. They took everyone… We couldn’t breathe; we were suffocating there; it wasn’t a bomb shelter. It was just a school basement. So we started punching holes in the walls to get some air. We started losing consciousness. Russian soldiers are just like a horde. Whey would get drunk and loitered around. One moment, one of them lets you out; he changes his mind the next moment. Please excuse the details: 360 people had to use the buckets instead of toilets, can you imagine that? We were just sitting on the sand; we were happy to have a piece of a cardboard box to sit on” Taisiya: “Some 11 people died in our basement. Older people who couldn’t breathe that air: the basement walls were whitewashed, which made the air hard to breathe. We had to sit on a chair day and night. We lived in the basement; they lived upstairs in the school. We had a 16-square-meter room [839 feet — red.] and more than 30 people inside, including 8 children. One boy was three years old.”

Residents were constantly threatened with weapons and executions by firing squad. The villagers couldn’t do anything without the occupiers’ consent.

“When they let us out every once in a while, they would almost immediately force us to go back in. If we didn’t do it then and there, they would start shooting in the air, making us run and trample each other in the basement.”

“They took away our cellphones. They said if you do not give your cellphone voluntarily — they will shoot every third person. Of course, we gave away all our cell phones. Someone managed to hide theirs, but most gave their phones away. Nobody wanted to die.”

“When they wanted to shove another family into the basement, we tried to tell them it was not possible, there was not enough space — he took out his submachine gun and told us to shut our mouths. So we didn’t say a word. Among us were only old and disabled people; what could we say. What’s the point of bawling out: one word, and you are dead.”

Sometimes, hostages were allowed to go out to get some air. But there were days when they would not let people leave the basement at all. They even had to use the bucket as a toilet in full view of everyone else. The Russian troops themselves made a headquarters out of the school. They lived in the building and dug trenches for equipment and infantry along the perimeter. For this reason, the residents of Yahidne assumed that they were kept as a human shield so that the Ukrainian army would not strike at the enemy.

Although the occupiers fed the locals, there was not enough food for everyone. Even children had to starve. “They gave us some food at first. They gave us two spoonfuls of porridge. I gave it to my grandson. A child would eat and say, ‘I want more”. He wasn’t full. Do you know how scary it is to have nothing to give a child to eat? It’s terrifying”, — says a local woman and cries.

Tetiana recalls when she pleaded to be allowed to grab some warm clothes for her son, she was forced to sing the Russian anthem: “He made us sing the Russian anthem for going to the village to take the child’s clothes. We didn’t sing, we sat in the basement and didn’t do that!”.

No one was spared, neither small children nor the elderly: “Well, there were 35 of us in a 15-square-meter room [738 feet — red.], including 3 bedridden ones. Two-month-old babies were screaming; their mothers could neither change nor wash them. Poor things wanted to eat.”

Taisiya: “I have a husband with disabilities. They also pointed a machine at us and told us to go where everyone else was. They put him there [in the basement — red.]; we stayed there for a month. He cannot walk at all now. Earlier, he at least walked on his toes, and now he cannot walk.”

As in Bucha, many civilians were found dead in Yahidne with their hands tied, shot in the back of the head, and their jaws knocked out. Locals were forced to dig graves in the woods and bury several people at a time. Residents say about the shootings: “Yes, they brought guys from Zolotynka [neighboring village], and they didn’t even take them into that basement corridor, they took them away after 10 minutes, they took them outside the fence — they shot them and that was it.”

Halyna, a retiree: “Our people were shot without any reason. Our neighbor was shot — he was only 30 years old. He was shot for just standing in the yard.”

“Young people were shot, two members of the Shevchenko family are gone, Tanya is gone, Lyonia… well, only I know young people”.

“When the dead were carried out on stretchers, several corpses were taken away at once and buried. Our guys went there and dug graves. They had to put two or three persons in one grave; just buried them, and that was it”.

In Yahidne, people from the village have been looking for those buried in mass graves and gardens for a week. According to volunteer Ihor, his team has already dug out and brought 17 people to Chernihiv, including 13 civilians: “There were mass graves here during the occupation. There were shot civilians and soldiers. Some corpses had their hands tied up, jaws knocked out, and shot in the back of the head.

We found two guys from a logistics company in the basement, with their hands tied, on their knees, and shot in the back of the head.” The formerly prosperous village is now left ruined and looted. The remaining inhabitants somehow try to bring it back to life, but the tragedy of the events and the fear of war still haunts the village. A local resident, Svitlana, talks about looting: “Everything was destroyed, the houses were ransacked terribly. They took everything. Starting with underwear and socks and ending with jewelry and appliances. Some had their washing machines and sofas taken away.”

Resident Taisiya: “And they looted everything. And everything they couldn’t take away they just smashed, my son had a sound system, they just cut it in half. Laptops, they broke everything”.

Tamara: “We had a beautiful village, hardworking people. Russians were surprised and said, ‘You have so much meat in your refrigerators, so much produce, and pickled food”. And what have they done… They left us bare walls. We’re already sitting on a powder keg waiting to be shot, and that’s it.”

“I still have terrible nightmares that they will come back. It’s a terrible tragedy,” — Halyna, an elderly resident, says with frustration.

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