Conflicts & War

The missing bodies of Borodyanka

Borodyanka, Ukraine, Apr 6 (EFE).- Residents of Borodyanka, a small town northwest of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, said that since the Russian invasion began, shelling has destroyed the town and people have been killed at random.

But the bodies of the killed have disappeared.

“We have seen many bodies. They killed a lot of people. Now they are gone, I guess they have been taken away,” Antaloy, 47, tells Efe.

Anatoly witnessed how a Russian tank killed six of his friends for gesturing the sign of victory, how Russian soldiers hit his wife in the head with a Kalashnikov rifle, and how they shot neighbors after making them leave their houses deceived into thinking they were receiving food.

“First they launched airstrikes, then tanks came in firing ammunition, and then Russian soldiers burst into the houses screaming.

“They would say: We know you are hiding in cellars and shelters. We will come and kill you,” Anatoly says.

“Russians are bad,” his friend, Alexander, adds.

The number of victims in Borodyanka, where only ruins remain, is unknown.

But according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, it could be even worse than in Bucha, where over 300 corpses have been found in mass graves.

“I think we are going to talk a lot about Borodyanka,” Venediktova said.

The destruction of infrastructure in Borodyanka, where dozens of apartment blocks have been reduced to rubble, is already much worse than in neighboring Bucha and Irpin.

“There are a lot of dead bodies down there. The building fell on them,” a resident tells Efe.

Rescue teams on Wednesday began searching for bodies under the rubble, but they are yet to be found.

“The Russians collected the dead so there would be no record of them,” a resident who preferred to remain anonymous says.

“They had a crematorium where they made them all disappear, now they are just ashes,” they add.

Ludmila, 70, and Galina, 63, lived under Russian occupation for over a month. They had no electricity or gas and were forced to ration the little food they had.

“At night they would stand on the riverbank, they (Russian troops) shot everything they saw,” Galina says.

“We were always locked in, we were very scared. When we came out of the basement, there was only ruins and destruction,” Ludmila adds.

Burnt tanks, overturned cars and clothes on the ground still fill the streets and access roads to Borodyanka.

But while the marks of war remain, what really happened is a mystery. EFE

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