SA 2C5 “Hyacinth-S” crews of Russian “Vostok” troops fighting against Ukrainian troops in South Donetsk. direction in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine, Donetsk region, on April 10, 2024.
Photo: EPA/SCANPIX
Three families from Irpen, whose sons volunteered for the unit in the first days after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, waited for almost four years for the remains of their children to be released from captivity. They were eventually found in a cemetery where they were buried as “unknown”, according to foreign media.
TV24
“The US strategy looks like a declaration of war on the European Union.” British expert on possible risks of Trump’s actions
A cocktail
Quick psychological test: Which of the ropes do you think is the longest?
“ASV will do everything so that no one can block this road” – leaked information about the point of peace talks that can change the future of Europe
Read other posts
It was only thanks to persistent efforts that the sons were found and buried with honor, as well as the Russian war crimes were discovered.
Three close friends who have known each other for years
Table of Contents
The three women – Olesya (Arthur’s mother), Valeria (Ruslan’s mother) and Lyudmila (Alexei’s mother) – became very close in recent years. Their children were inseparable. Artur and Aleksei have been friends since they were three years old and in kindergarten.
The boys were similar both in character and appearance – both almost two meters tall. At the beginning of the invasion, Artur and Ruslan were 22 years old, Alexey was 20. They took their relatives to the west of Ukraine and returned to Irpen, where they joined the volunteer unit.
Alexey’s mother remembers her son’s last words:
“I remember very well when he said, ‘I’m going to be all right.'”
Mission, captivity and traces of torture
Contact with the boys was cut off on March 2, 2022. On that day, Ruslan, Artur and Alexei were tasked with delivering ammunition and drones to our positions.
Not far from Worzel, the boys found themselves in the middle of a firefight, where they were later captured. At the end of March, a video appeared on a Russian channel showing Artur and Ruslan being interrogated in the forest.
“A neighbor sent me a video of him badly beaten, kneeling, completely exposed to the orcs… We were told that they cannot be killed because there is a video of them being held captive,” says Artur’s mother.
Ruslan’s relatives submitted DNA samples in 2022. They looked for clues among the prisoners in Yelenovka and Novozibka, pretrial detention centers. “I’m still looking for him alive,” recalls Ruslan’s mother.
A year passed, and the relatives did not have access to the materials of the criminal case, the investigators constantly changed. Mothers began their investigation through informal contacts. They found Sergey Kondratenko, a resident of Irpen, who had been captured by the Russians at the same time.
He confirmed that he spent about five days with Alexei, Ruslan and Arthur and revealed that they were tortured:
“They were tortured – it was March, cold, they sat on top of them and used them as mattresses,” he says.
The boys were threatened with the death penalty six times. They were then kept in a freezer at Gostomel Airport. On March 7, some civilians were captured and others executed.
Remains and DNA match
When the Kyiv region was liberated, burnt remains were brought from the Gostomel hangars to the Butch forensics office, so mutilated that it was not even possible to determine the number of bodies.
Forensic doctor Sergej Lakhovich explained that the remains were badly burned and the high temperature turned them into coals.
DNA was obtained from the charred remains, but utility workers hid them in the Gostomel cemetery, marking them as “property of unknown persons.”
After four years in the dark, tired of the search, Ms. Valerie used her contacts to request a DNA test. It turned out that her DNA was not yet registered in the database. When Valeria’s data was submitted, it was a 99.9% match with remains number 352.
A continuation of the funeral and the fight
Artur, Ruslan and Alexey were honorably buried in the Alley of Heroes in Irpen, next to each other.
“We buried our children with respect,” Ludmila said.
For mothers, the fight is not over yet – they have to show that their sons are real heroes, because they voluntarily defended their country from the first day of the war.
“I want all of humanity to know that they are heroes,” says Valeria.
But the main battle continues – to ensure that all evidence of war crimes is collected. Because those who shot and burned their unarmed sons “have names, ranks and positions in the Russian army.”
Topics
