On a damp white wall in the basement of a school in Yahidine there is a rudimentary calendar, drawn with a red crayon. For the people of this village, that almanac records a period of unimaginable trauma: from March 5 to April 2.
Yahidne, on the outskirts of the city of Chernigov, about 140 km north of kyiv and near the borders with Belarus and Russia, was occupied by Russian soldiers for almost a month.
The invading army took men, women and children out of their houses and held them in the basement of the local school for four weeks, some 130 people crowded into a space of about 65 square meter.
Mykola Klymchuk, from 60 years, was one of they. He offered to show us around the basement.
As we descended a few short stairs, we began to smell the stench of disease and decay. The room was dirty, with some mattresses, clothes, shoes and books lying on the floor, four small cots in the center and a pile of utensils in one corner.
Mykola took us directly to the opposite end of the room.
“This was my half meter of space. He slept standing up,” she claimed. His voice broke and he began to cry. “I tied myself to the railing here with my scarf so I wouldn’t fall. Happens 25 nights like this”.
Mykola said that she could not move for fear to stepping on other people. There was between 39 Y 50 children among the captives, including babies. The youngest was barely 2 months old.
Russian forces quickly reached Jahidne when they launched their attack on Chernigov, a city of about 300,000 inhabitants that was isolated, surrounded and bombed by the Russians for weeks. They also destroyed a bridge on the highway to the capital, kyiv, leaving residents with no escape route.
Now, the Russian forces have withdrawn after failing to take kyiv.
The BBC is one of the first media that has been able to reach the area and reveal the horror of what happened during the occupation and the bombardment. Because of its proximity to the border, people are still worried that the Russians may return soon.
Anastasiia, from 15 years, he was in the basement with his father and grandmother.
“There was hardly enough space. We lived sitting down. We slept sitting up. Not that we slept. It was impossible. So much artillery was falling around here. It was unbearable”, she recounted.
The room had no ventilation . The only two windows were boarded up.
“During my time here, they died 12 people”, indicated Mykola.
Living with the dead
Most were elderly. It is not clear what they died of, but Mykola believes that some of them suffocated.
When people died, their corpses could not be removed immediately. The Russian soldiers did not allow to do it daily. And given the constant fighting outside – the artillery, the explosions and the gunfire – it was also dangerous.
That meant that people, including children, lived among corpses for hours , sometimes days, until they could be removed.
“It was very scary. I met the people who died,” Anastasiia said. “They treated us very well. I felt so sad, they died here for no reason”.
“Under normal conditions, they would not have died. Putin is a war criminal”, Mykola pointed out.
“My feet started to swell. But I kept telling myself ‘I must survive. I have to do it, for my daughter and my two granddaughters’”.
Most of the time I don’t know people were even allowed to use a bathroom. Instead they had to use buckets.
“Sometimes the soldiers would take people out to use them as human shields,” Mykola assured.
he allowed them to cook over open fires twice a day. The village had enough food supplies and a water well.
One of the Russian soldiers told Mykola that they were informed that they would stay in the Ukraine for only four days, long enough to capture kyiv.
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Looking for loved ones among the graves
On April 3, the Russians withdrew from Jahidne.
Ukrainian soldiers are in the village now and most of those who were trapped have been evacuated to surrounding areas.
“I wake up many times during the night. I feel like I can hear the sound of gunshots. I run to my parents scared”, says Anastasiia.
The Russians occupied villages like Yahidne around Chernigov in an attempt to besiege the city and finally take control of it.
They were unable to enter the city, but there has been extensive destruction in many parts and the authorities say that some 350 civilians have died.
Since Russia’s withdrawal from Chernigov, volunteers have been burying the dead. A part of the local cemetery is now filled with new graves, with a sign put on each one, so that it can be identified.
The families that were separated have started going back to see if they can find the grave of their loved ones.
A local soccer stadium was bombed by a Russian plane, officials say. You can see a huge crater in the center of the field where a bomb fell. Another destroyed part of the grandstand, which is now a lopsided jumble of broken plastic seats and metal railings.
Near the stadium, a children’s library inside a historic building has also been seriously damaged.
In Novoselivka, north of Chernigov, the destruction extends as far as the view reaches.
Piles of stones and bricks lie where houses used to be. We saw a pink winter jacket, a teddy bear and elephant, and Lego bricks on one of the paths leading to the residential areas.
Along the way, we saw more bomb craters.
“Why Didn’t they warn us?”
A woman and a child on a bicycle made signs for us to follow them.
Nina Vunnyk, from 39 years old, and his grandson 10, Danylo, they wanted to show us their house -now a shell – in which the interior and surroundings had been destroyed.
Ludmyla, from 12 years old, daughter of Nina and mother of Danylo, lost a leg and is á in the hospital.
When they started to bomb Nina’s house, they ran to someone else’s home to seek shelter in the basement. But that one was also bombed.
“The explosion left us unconscious. Some were left with bruises, one person was injured. When we came to, I saw that my daughter was screaming, ‘Mommy, Mommy, I don’t have a leg.’ It was horrible,” she said.
Ludmyla crawled to safety and was taken to a hospital.
Four generations of his family had lived in that home. “In a moment, there was nothing left. I don’t know where I will live in the winter,” she said.
You do not have the money to pay for a prosthesis for your daughter.
Regarding Russia’s statements that they have not attacked civilians, he comments: “He it’s full of lies. There is a woman in the hospital without a leg. That’s the truth”.
“Let Putin pay for his surgery. Let Putin build this house. Wasn’t it so bad that he wanted to own her? Let him pay for everything now,” she emphasized.
This article was contributed Imogen Anderson, Anastasia Levchenko Y Daria Sipigina
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