These days, it is not only difficult for journalists to get to Kherson, but also to call them. After all, the city has been without communication and electricity for a week, however, despite everything, they were able to talk to Mykola Makarenko. He spent all 8 months of the occupation in Kherson. Moreover, he visited the torture chambers of the Russians. – Although I was a civil servant, I never gave an interview. I don’t know where to start, Mykola says.
Let’s start with February 24. How did you know that the war had started?
We have the Chornobayivka airfield near Kherson, and it was bombed at night, sirens began to wail, panic began in the city. Nobody really knew anything. And let me tell you, when I came to the military office at 10 o’clock, there was no one there…
Yes, now we know about the escape of many of those who were supposed to protect the city, and the cases filed against the head of the local SBU are only one of the proofs of betrayal.
Yes, there were many traitors in the city. And when we came to the military commissariat, there was no one there. I am a former soldier, we started thinking about how to join the Teroboron.
When did the Russians enter the city?
March 1. And from that moment they set up their checkpoints where they checked people. They had lists of all the military, all the Teroboronmen, all civil servants, so it was very difficult to move around the city. I lasted until August 16.
How many of these roadblocks were there, was it possible to get at least to the bread shop without hitting them?
They moved through the city as a patrol. One day I saw how they simply threw a person out of the car and drove away. “Good people” turned me in and 17 days were like 17 years.
Did they stop you at home or on the road?
On the way, I cut off a car, then they pulled me out of the car and took me to an isolation ward.
What did they tell you when they detained you?
That I am a sabotage and intelligence group. An exiled Cossack and so on. Then they started telling me that when I was in the ATO, I killed local residents.
Can you tell us something about the interrogations?
You do realize that all of this came with, um, four broken ribs, a broken jaw, a broken arm and a Z cut on the leg.
Were you tortured directly by the military or by the Russian Guard?
FSB
Where did they set up their torture chambers?
In the local detention center.
How many people were there?
At the time I was there, there were about 200.
Did you know about the deaths, because we already read here that people were drowned.
I was also drowned and electrocuted – everything happened. Some who confessed were forced to run down the corridor and shot at. We could hear it through the door.
Did they feed you? Was it also a form of torture?
They brought food three times a day, but you can imagine what a mess it was. But if someone did not confess, they could say: he does not eat or sleep today. In each cell there was a special man who watched over it. They did not let me eat, drink, or sleep for six days.
But you still pleaded not guilty?
No. If I did, I wouldn’t be talking to you. And so, after 16 days of detention, they prepared me a little, gave me a bribe and let me go. 2 years of hardening in the anti-terrorist operation took its toll after all. And there were people who could not stand it. And there were those in my cell who, after confessing, were sent to Russia to be judged according to their own laws.
What do you think was connected with the fact that you were released – was it the influence of some political moment, or the good mood of the Facebook user?
Chance. By the way, my friends and I had agreed beforehand not to confess anything. Because otherwise you won’t get out of there.
You say you made an agreement with your friends. Can you tell me what you did with your friends?
No, let’s talk about that another time. You say that you were betrayed by “good people”… How polarized was the city during the occupation? I will say this, for the first two months, people were very much waiting for liberation, very patient. And then people started to simply give up because there was no way out, there was no other choice. If someone worked in the civil service, they were still paid a salary, and businessmen had no choice but to open up and work according to the laws of the occupiers, because they had to feed their families. And what conditions did the occupiers set? For shops, for business? At first, they wanted to make a picture from Kherson, as they say in Russian – “everything is fine, work, only for rubles.” But you have no idea what the ruble exchange rate was here. They bet 1 for 25, while the real exchange rate of the ruble was 1/2.5. They very much wanted to push the hryvnia out of circulation, but about 70% of shops refused to accept rubles. There were others, of course, let the special services deal with them.
Did it happen that the store owners were taken to isolation cells?
Yes, it was. If a cafe had a menu in Ukrainian, the owner could easily be taken away. I will tell you more, they could take you away for speaking Ukrainian. You could be taken away on the street for saying “SHO” in Ukrainian and not in Russian. I was a witness when they passed a light roadblock where documents were not checked, and a subscription to a suspicious page was found in the phone, then two men were taken to the pretrial detention center, and a child’s leg was broken. It was before my eyes.
Were there ethnic Russians, Buryats, and Kadyrivites in Kherson?
They changed. At first there were Buryats, then they were replaced by our former Ukrainians or whatever you want to call them from the so-called LPR-DPR, and that’s where it started. They were very angry with us, they shouted: “You live too well here, we will arrange for you now.” Then they were replaced by Kadyrivians and ethnic Russians. They have already started to simply loot the city.
I know that people who fled from Kherson received letters that if you do not return, we will confiscate your property. How massive was it?
I can’t say that for sure. Never heard of that. But there was an order from Saldo that if people do not register their housing, property, and cars in their centers by January 1, they would be considered the property of their state. It was the same with pharmacies. For example, one of the collaborators liked the chain of pharmacies. He simply came there and opened the “Narodnaya” pharmacy there. He was one of the leaders of the occupation authorities, so I think you will hear about him soon. And so, somewhere from September, they were simply engaged in looting Kherson. Total looting. Imagine, Kadyriv people came to my neighbor’s private house – a man, a woman and a mother lived in it – and said – “you have 15 minutes to leave, now we will live here, we liked it here.” People had no choice but to leave. When they returned after their retreat, the house had been ransacked. I honestly admit that they left the toilets, but there were no appliances.
Was it difficult to leave the city during the occupation?
Until September, they allowed it, but through total filtering. So that you are neither a soldier, nor an army officer, nor a civil servant. Unfortunately, we had many traitors and all bases belonged to the occupiers. FSB officers also connected special equipment, looked at phones and laptops. Therefore, many people did not leave, because they knew that they would not pass this filtering.
After September, it was possible to go only to Russia.
And until September?
Then it was possible to leave via David’s ford, Vasylivka or to Russia.
How was the city provided with food and medicine in those months? What were those goods? Did they bring only their own?
For the first two months, they allowed the import of Ukrainian goods, and already in May they banned the import of Ukrainian goods. The goods were there, but you cannot imagine these prices. For example, a plate of spazmalgon cost 150 hryvnias instead of 30. Coca Cola cost 100 hryvnias per bottle. Meat was 600 and 800 hryvnias per kilogram.
What happened to your farmers, because in Chernihiv Oblast they forbade you to go into the field if you refused to hang the Russian flag on the tractor? It depended on the area. It happened that they simply called a farmer to them and said: “Do you want to work? You have a thousand hectares there, give us ten thousand dollars and work.” Some farmers were told that you will settle with us when you harvest the crop. And some were told to “work, work”, and then they simply took away part of the harvest. That is, in each district in its own way, depending on which troops were stationed. For example, in the Oleshkiv district there were mainly Krymchaks, ethnic Ukrainians. They were allowed to work: “work, everything is fine, you will still take the products to us.” They said about 10,000 in the Kherson region, but in the regions closer to the Crimea, they simply took away the harvest and took away property.
How actively were the military actions conducted around the city and how much did they bother, except for Chornobayivka?
Well, Chornobayivka is just their requiem. I live not far from there, so I heard it well. But there were no such strong battles. But, so that you understand, the city came to life a little at 8 in the morning and somewhere until one, two in the afternoon. Later it was almost impossible to meet a person. People were afraid to go out.
Did they check only at checkpoints or did they also go to houses?
It depends on the area. If the district is made of private houses, then they also went to the houses. If there is a large district with high-rise buildings, then there was almost no such thing.
The Russians destroyed Ukrainian towers during the event, and then started their own mobile communications and Internet providers?
Yes, they set up their three operators so that everyone uses only their connection so that they can control it.
And passports were forced to take before the referendum?
I will say that everyone who went to their service was forced to take passports. If you wanted to work as a private entrepreneur, you had to get a passport first. If you want to re-register the car, take your passport too. That is, it was not a direct coercion, but rather a slightly veiled one.
As for the referendum, no Kherson citizen will call it a referendum. Because when these boxes of theirs were standing everywhere and you saw how their military man threw 200-300 pieces of paper there, then what kind of referendum is this?
That is, few people participated?
It wasn’t at all. We had such a box near the market, we stood there for two hours talking, then during this time two grandmothers threw ballots into it, and they were given 5 thousand rubles each on the spot. That’s how it was.
And before the referendum itself, were there any visits to the houses, any pressure? Did they not even bother about it?
There was a mobile newsletter. Maybe I don’t know something.
But in principle, they did not invest much in it?
No. The referendum was held in Kherson on November 11, when the whole city took to the streets, and that was fiction.
And when there is no light in the city, there is no heat, there is no water, and people shout (here I will say it in Russian, because the city is still mostly Russian): “We don’t care, even if it doesn’t last a month, but we are free. Freedom is expensive “. This was said in particular by grandparents who are over 70 years old. How many people are left in the city now? I think somewhere around 80 thousand out of almost 400. But many acquaintances are already writing to me whether it is possible to return. But the city is still not letting anyone in, it is still being filtered, because there are still many traitors and Russians in disguise. Is it subversive intelligence groups or did they not have time to leave? They did not have time to leave. In a week, they stole all the boats that people had. And on the last day, they got through everything they could.
Is it necessary to beware of subversive intelligence group in the city?
I think that there are many of them, because there are many people who betrayed.
How did the behavior of the Russians change when they realized that the Ukrainians were smashing their arsenals and launching a counteroffensive?
They said until the end that “Kherson is Russia”, “we will return”. They said that there was nothing to worry about, that they had a lot of warehouses and people and that they would return even if they were put here. These were their words.
When they retreated, what did they destroy?
The entire infrastructure of the city. They blew up the TV tower, blew up the network of electric pylons, mined and destroyed the electric substation. That is why the city has been without electricity, water, and heat for the sixth day. There is gas, but it depends on the houses.
Is it possible to buy some generators, substations?
This is how the city lives now thanks to this. If someone has a substation, they go to him to charge their phones. Sometime yesterday, diesel generators arrived at the pumping stations, and they are already pumping water there.
More than 60 bodies of dead Ukrainians with traces of torture by the Russian occupiers were discovered on the liberated territory of Kherson region.
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Denys Monastyrskyi, said this.
The official noted that exhumation work is currently underway at the burial sites of residents of the region killed by the invaders.
As Monastyrskyi said, 63 bodies have already been found in the entire territory of the Kherson region, however, as the minister noted, “we must understand that the search has only just begun.” “We understand that the months of stay of the Russian orcs did not pass by populated areas and civilians, and therefore many more places of torture and burials of victims of such crimes will be found,” the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs emphasized. So, law enforcement officers have already found 11 places where the Russians kept people, 4 of them “have signs of torture.” “A total of 436 criminal proceedings have been instituted on grounds of war crimes,” Monastyrskyi informed.
They wanted to join the Soviet Union, but ended up in the 90s. Bandits from Melitopol, on the basis of alleged revenge for the death of a criminal authority, pass Zaporizhzhia region under their control. With the occupation of Melitopol, the “rapid rise” of the small-time Melitopol criminal Pavlo Kharebov, known by the nicknames Pasha Osetin or Pasha Shot, began. At first, he called himself Murat Saidov’s “right-hand man” – “watching over” the Zaporizhzhia region from Kadyrov, but Saidov soon returned to Chechnya and Kharyebov began to implement a plan to build his own “bandit empire.”
This opportunity was given to Pasha Osetin thanks to active cooperation with the Russian occupiers. He and his gang proved their loyalty to the invaders by pressuring entrepreneurs and engaging in racketeering in favor of the Russians. Including Kharebov and the company, with the help of the local Gauleiter Kateryna Umanets, “squeezed out” recreation centers in Kyrylivka. Thanks to Pasha Osetin’s efforts, he got the “breadiest” place in the war: he began to collect levies from businessmen and ordinary citizens who pass through Russian checkpoints to the occupied territory. Now Kharebov is trying to subjugate the entire occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region and become the main authority.
Thus, a video of Pasha Osetin’s gang beating a businessman in occupied Tokmak appeared online. Melitopol bandits decided to “capture” Tokmak under the pretext of revenge for the death of a criminal authority.
The story is like in some series “The Brigade”, only, unfortunately, it happens in life. 40 days ago in Tokmok, under mysterious circumstances, a kind of “watcher”, criminal authority Yash died. Informed people say that this was not without the direct participation of the Russian special services.
Kharebov and his gang dragged a local businessman Edik to the cemetery – a farmer who seemed to be in a bandit environment in the 90s, and then retired from business, and put him on his knees opposite the grave of the same Yasha. From Edik, Pasha Osetin’s gang demanded an admission of involvement in the murder of Yasha and an apology for this to the deceased. The businessman swore that he had nothing to do with it and had not been associated with crime for a long time.
The bandits beat the businessman with their feet, fists and sticks, cut them with a knife and humiliated them in every way. Demanding “retribution” for the death of the Tokmak authority, the criminals did not forget about their own profit: they demanded 50,000 dollars from the businessman who was tortured. With this, the bandits revealed their true intentions: the desire for profit, intimidation and establishing their order in Tokmok. Based on the voices on the video, it was possible to identify characters from the local criminal world. Thus, the participants in the beating of the businessman were: Pasha Osetin himself, his accomplice, the authority Lyokha Boxer, originally from Henichesk – he filmed everything that was happening on camera. A criminal authority, a Chechen Albek Kryvavy and a Zaporizhia criminal authority Lyokha Lopatа also took part in the beating. Regarding the latter, there are rumors that it was he who had a hand in the liquidation of the “watching” Yasha, and now he is trying to shift the responsibility for this to other people.
In the end, the minibus pulled up to the main square of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi. The last kilometers of such a long and painful road home are behind us. A moment later Dmytro found himself in the arms of his mother, brothers and fiancée Diana. He is at home, he returned to those whom he had not seen for almost a year and a half, steadfastly enduring all the horrors of being in Russian captivity.
A business trip to the south and a romantic proposal to a loved one
Last year in June, when junior sergeant Dmytro Rashkevich, the commander of one of the units of the Support Forces Command, went on another business trip, he had no idea how deadly it would become. He was previously informed that the task away from home would have to be carried out for nine months.
“Nine, then nine, I can stand it,” our hero only thought then. Moreover, he already had a similar experience when he served for a long time in the region of the anti-terrorist operation in the east of the country.
However, this time he was supposed to go not to the “hot” east, but in the direction of the relatively calm and peaceful south. For himself, he has already calculated everything: “in March the business trip ends, in April the contract with the army comes to an end, I propose to Diana, we get married and together we go to the Czech Republic to learn to be an entrepreneur and get a higher education.” I calculated, but I was wrong…
Dmytro only had time to propose to his beloved, who came to visit him in Zaporizhia in September of last year. How romantic it was! She, Diana, stood on the shore of the Sea of Azov and listened to the noise of the waves. And here he appeared – in military uniform, helmet and with a machine gun over his shoulder. He approached, got down on one knee in front of the girl, put a ring on her finger and promised to always be her true support and protector. At that time, about half a year remained before his return from a business trip. But, as it turned out, the same amount of time remained before the start of a large-scale war unleashed by Russia…
In the first days of the war, he found himself deep in the Russian rear
– We were unlucky. In the very first days of the war, we found ourselves deep in the Russian rear. On the one hand, the Rashists bypassed Mariupol, on the other, they crossed the Perekop Isthmus and captured Melitopol. As they say, the ring of encirclement has closed. In fact, there was only one way out: to change into civilian clothes and leave our base. We did so, going to nearby Primorsk. And they were already renting housing there, masquerading as ordinary “shababniks,” Dmytro recalled.
Around mid-March, having created a legend for himself, the soldier-engineer was with his comrades in occupied Primorsk, constantly looking for ways to escape from the environment. However, time did not work for our defenders. The invaders have already captured all the routes around the sea coast. The window of opportunity to leave has narrowed to a minimum. And the probability of exposing our boys increased every day. They really needed to make a “green corridor” home. And Dmytro, together with three other comrades-in-arms, set off on foot to seek happiness in nearby Berdyansk.
Through the command of his unit, he got in touch with the relevant specialists who were in Zaporizhzhia. Thanks to their help, the soldiers were placed in a conspiratorial apartment. And later in Dmytro’s life, underground activities began, with their appearances, passwords, hiding places… How a soldier turned into an underground He could not spend the night in one place for a long time. The conspiracy required maximum attention and concentration. In Berdyansk, the occupiers and their henchmen-collaborators already “managed” everything. It was dangerous. Deadly dangerous… Of course, it is very difficult to realize the very fact that, by some evil irony of fate, in your native land you have to constantly hide from someone, carefully look around in all directions, and fall asleep and wake up with the thought that now they can come for you, take you somewhere , interrogate and torture…
But in Dmytro’s case, it was necessary not just to hide, but also to act. And he acted! For the purpose of further identification, he surreptitiously photographed traitorous policemen, pasted patriotic leaflets in public places, settled displaced people from occupied Mariupol in conspiratorial apartments, and performed other tasks assigned to him by specialists.
He helped them, and the relevant specialists from Zaporizhzhia, in their turn, were to hand Dmytro a package of documents, using which our soldier-engineers were to evacuate to the territory controlled by Ukraine under the guise of civilian residents.
Junior Sergeant Rashkevich waited patiently. The documents were apparently already ready and he was about to receive them from one of the liaisons. But for some reason he did not get in touch.
— Mykola and Serhii were the ones who stayed with me from among my colleagues. Maxim earlier returned to our boys in Primorsk. And just then the Rashists opened a “green corridor” for the evacuation of civilians to Zaporizhzhia. Somehow we will get confused: let’s say that the documents were lost as a result of hostilities. The idea was risky, of course. But the boys insisted on it. We invented a believable legend, I deleted everything superfluous from their mobile phones. It seemed that we had implemented all the precautions. But, unfortunately, our operation failed, – says Dmytro.
The unit commander himself did not go with them. He simply had no right to do that. After all, six more of his comrades in arms were nearby, in Primorsk. And he could not throw them at will.
At seven in the morning, he took Mykola and Serhiy to the designated place, shook hands firmly, hoping to meet in Odesa as soon as possible, led a convoy of Ukrainian immigrants, and at six o’clock the connection with the boys disappeared. To this day, Dmytro has no information about their exact whereabouts. He only knows that the boys were taken off the bus and captured. After that, he stayed alone in Berdyansk for more than two weeks, continuing his underground activities in the occupied city. He constantly changed places of residence again. And when he once went to one of the conspiratorial apartments to collect some of his belongings, the neighbors informed him that they came here and asked about who lives here.
On the evening of April 27, he had just finished his conversation with his mother, Iryna Oleksandrivna. He hung up the phone, thought. And in a moment, his heavy silence was interrupted by a phone call. This was a phone call from a colleague who reported that enemy troops were carrying out raids in Primorsk. That’s why they decided to evacuate to Berdyansk and they must be met. – From the voice it was felt that my friend was nervous. So certain suspicions arose. But I still went to “meet” my brothers. Rather, as it turned out later, not them… After all, all six of my brothers had already been detained by the Russians in Primorsk in the morning. And already in the evening they caught me too. The ring, as they say, has closed… But I am not offended by anyone. I know that that fateful call was made to me under torture, – Dmytro recalled.
They were suffocated with a bag, beaten with water jets and rubber batons
For the next three days, the junior sergeant was kept in the Berdyansk police station. They kept and tortured…
According to Dmytro, he was suffocated with a bag and beaten with electric shocks and rubber batons. The boy lost consciousness several times due to physical pain. And they poured water over him and beat him again, and choked him again…
— During the interrogations, I was wrapped with electric wires, tied to a chair with handcuffs, and my legs were tied with construction ties. I did not see my executioners, because they pulled a mask over my face. And they themselves were also in balaclavas.
During the interrogations, the Russians for some reason imitated a Caucasian accent, although, as I understood, they were actually persons of Slavic nationality. Why did they do it? Probably, so that under certain circumstances I would not recognize them in the future, – says the warrior-pontooner.
With the use of methods of physical violence on the first day, interrogations continued until late at night. It is difficult to convey what Dmytro experienced during those hours. They beat out of him testimony about themselves and their colleagues, asked about areas of mined terrain, the quality of bunkers, warehouses with weapons, secret laboratories and carried other nonsense.
They even tried to “pin” the junior sergeant of the destruction of the Russian warship, which was sunk at the end of March in the port of Berdyansk, saying that he was the gunner. But, despite everything, Dmytro held on! Only the next day, when the Russians managed to unlock our soldier’s mobile phone and found his photos in military uniform in the messenger files, he, physically and morally exhausted and devastated, admitted that he was a soldier. They were taken out for “shooting”And later Dmytro was transferred to the Berdyansk correctional colony, in which six of his comrades-in-arms had already been held for three days at that time.
At first, the junior sergeant was kept in a cell with other prisoners. And later, when its further use became impossible, Dmytro was “relocated” to “solitary” where his colleague Oleksandr was kept.
There they continued to spend more than three long months together. More precisely, they did not spend time, but suffered in captivity under the supervision of the Rosguards. The conditions were terrible: a 2×2 meter cell, barred windows and no breath of fresh air. And so day after day…
courtyard once a week to wash, we managed to breathe air. But we were taken to the bath only for a month. Then this opportunity was also taken away. So the head was washed in the cell under the tap with cold water, – junior sergeant Rashkevich said.
And often he heard someone new being brought to the neighboring cells. I heard their screams because of the beating. Screams that he will never forget and that he sometimes dreams about at night to this day. Dmytro himself was also beaten several times with a stun gun in the colony. During the interrogation at the police station, a 25-year-old man had his nose broken and a tooth knocked out. They also took him out for “shooting”. More precisely, they simulated: they put a mask on their faces, led them into a room, and then threw a firecracker at their feet. As they say, neither physical nor psychological torture was disdained.
The way home lay through Sevastopol
– But somewhere in the middle of August, a ray of hope lit up in his soul. And not by chance.
After all, the Ukrainian military began to question what things and documents they had with them during their detention, in order to make a detailed description of them.
Of course, it made a positive impression on us. I never had the thought that I would never return home. But it already seemed that we would be liberated only when Berdyansk was de-occupied by the Defense Forces of Ukraine. And here is such good news – they ask about things, so an exchange is possible…
After that, we waited every day for this moment, but nothing happened for a month. And it seems that on September 7, we were finally informed that tomorrow we are moving to another place. And so it happened. At nine o’clock in the morning, we were taken out of the cells, our hands were tied tightly, our eyes were taped shut, we were placed in the back of a truck and, under the supervision of two armed security guards, we were taken in an unknown direction, – Dmytro shared his memories.
As it turned out, their way lay to Sevastopol, which they, exhausted by inhuman methods of transportation, reached late in the evening of the same day.
Junior Sergeant Rashkevich himself had never visited the Crimea before, but through the barracks barracks windows he was almost immediately able to recognize the familiar Sevastopol landscapes from photographs. They were held captive on the Crimean land for another month, staying in the barracks. They were not taken out for a walk, but they were fed better and were not abused. And early in the morning on October 13, they were again placed in the truck and taken to the exchange. They walked past each other across the bridge: the liberated defenders of Ukraine and the occupiers returned from our captivity. the Russians boarded the same KamAZ that delivered our boys for exchange, and the defenders of Ukraine boarded a comfortable bus.
That’s it – the torments of Dmytro and his six colleagues were left behind. It’s a pity that Mykola and Serhiy, who so wanted to break through the “green corridor” to theirs back in April, did not return with them…
Dmytro spent three weeks together with his brothers in the appropriate rehabilitation center in Poltava region, and returned home ten days ago. He is currently on a month-long vacation due to illness, spending time with his mother, Iryna Oleksandrivna, his two teenage brothers, and his fiancée, Diana. He is happy! They are all very happy together! However, the wedding is postponed until Peremoha, and the trip to the Czech Republic for the purpose of entering an educational institution is also postponed. Junior sergeant Rashkevich remains in the army. He has his scores to settle with this war and with the occupying strikers…