‘They weren’t fighting soldiers — they were fighting regular people’

The 17 civilians killed during the Russian occupation of Andriivka

In February and March, when the Ukrainian village of Andriivka was under Russian occupation, Russian troops reportedly killed at least 14 civilians; three more died as a result of shelling. After investigating the circumstances of each death, Schemes, a project from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service, has released an online map charting the killings and an investigative film called “Andriivka: The Tragedy of One Village.” With permission, Meduza is publishing translated summaries of the victims’ stories.

Yevhenii Piskotin

When Russian troops finally retreated from Andriivka in early April, the streets were lined with smashed and burnt cars, and the bodies of murdered civilians lay alongside the roads. One of them, though initially difficult for investigators to identify, turned out to be Ukrainian Red Cross volunteer Yevhenii Piskotin.

“He was wearing a white shirt, his hands were bound, and he had a beard. He wasn’t from the village; we didn’t know him. Almost three weeks ago, we saw a post on social media that said they were searching for [missing] volunteers. From the pictures, we realized it had to be him,” said Andriivka resident Natalia Sidorenko, who worked with her husband to find bodies and bury them.

With the help of a satellite from the American company Planet Labs, journalists were able to determine that the minibus lying next to Piskotin’s body had been in the same spot since March 19. Piskotin had stopped responding to messages two weeks earlier. An employee from the Red Cross’s Poltava regional office said that Piskotin had driven his family to western Ukraine and disappeared on his way back. He was 35 years old. He left behind his mother, his wife, and his two children.

Oleksiy Cherkovskyi

The body of 31-year-old Andriivka resident Oleksiy Cherkovskyi was found not far from Piskotin’s body. According to Cherkovskyi neighbors, on the day he died, March 3, he was planning to leave the occupied village along with his family. He went home to get his passport and ran into Russian troops along the way.

“The Russians asked him where he was going. He said he was going home. And they took him off somewhere,” said one Andriivka resident, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Cherkovskyi was shot in the back.

Yuriy Kravchenya

According to witnesses, Yuriy Kravchenya was shot in the courtyard outside his home in the early days of the occupation. Kravchenya, 46, lived on Andriivka’s main thoroughfare, Melya Street.

“They didn't torture him; they just killed him in the courtyard. All we heard was gunfire,” said a village resident named Olga.

Ihor Yermakov

The body of 54-year-old Ihor Yermakov was found near an electrical substation. His hands were bound and his body lay face down. According to neighbors, Russian soldiers took Yermakov from his home on March 2.

“They told him, ‘Our commander wants to speak with you’,” said Olga, another village resident, on March 2. She saw Yermakov when he was being taken away and again after he was found dead.

Ukrainian law enforcement officials suspect Russian soldier Daniil Frolkin of killing Yermakov. According to witness statements, Frolkin hit Yermakov multiple times before shooting him in the head. When the Russian investigative outlet iStories contacted Frolkin, he confessed to killing a civilian in Andriivka.

Vadym Ganyuk, Ruslan Yaremchuk, and Vitaly Kybukevich

Vadym Ganyuk, Ruslan Yaremchuk, and Vitaly Kybukevich were killed on March 12. Their bodies were found on Sloboda Street. According to other Andriivka residents, on the day the men were killed, Russian troops were driving around the city, periodically getting out and shooting people.

“They shot three people in thirty minutes. Yaremchuk first, Vitaly Kybukevich — my brother — second, and Vadym Ganyuk third. All of them were shot with their hands tied behind them. They weren’t made to kneel, they were just shot in the legs and in the head,” said Andriivka village elder Anatoly Kybukevich.

45-year-old Vitaly Kybukevich and 33-year-old Vadym Ganyuk were neighbors. Though they made sure to evacuate their families from the village, the men themselves stayed behind. Local residents said that Kybukevich’s body was found in a supply closet near his home while Ganyuk’s was found in a cellar. 46-year-old Yaremchuk’s body was found in a garden.

“Nobody thought anything like this would happen. That they would kill people. These weren’t soldiers they fought against — these were regular people,” said Andriivka resident Svitlana.

Ukrainian law enforcement officials who spoke to Schemes said that Daniil Frolkin’s fellow serviceman Alexander Chiryasov could be responsible for the men’s deaths.

Ivan Rybytskyi

Also on Sloboda Street, the body of 45-year-old Ivan Rybitsky was found in a house that was not his own. He was initially buried in a garden, but was reburied after Russian troops retreated from the village.

“All I know about the death of my brother is that the Russians assaulted his wife. My brother cried out for them not to touch his wife. He was trying to defend her. After that, they took him away somewhere,” said Rybitsky’s brother, Viktor.

According to Viktor, his brother’s death certificate indicates that he had an “opening” in his face and a traumatic brain injury so large as to be “incompatible with life.”

Ihor Savran and Volodymyr Pozharkinov

The bodies of neighbors and former classmates Ihor Savran and Volodymyr Pozharkinov were found in a local farm. Both men were 46 years old. Savran worked as a security guard while Pozharkinov was a taxi driver. Russian soldiers took both of them on March 19.

“The examination indicated that [the cause of death] was a bullet wound in the rib cage,” said Savran’s relative, Andriivka resident Lyubov Vitkovskaya, about Savran.

Andriy Kostetskyi

Before the war, there was a rehab center for people struggling with addiction on the outskirts of Andriivka. It was destroyed by shelling during Russia’s occupation. According to village residents, Russian soldiers killed one of the patients, Andriy Kostetskyi, by throwing a mine in his direction.

“He had an open leg fracture and shrapnel all over his face. He had bled out from his wounds. They tossed something from a tank, and he saw it and tried to hide,” said a local resident named Galina.

Yevhenii Stepaniuk

The body of 39-year-old Yevhenii Stepanyuk was found buried in a garden next to a house on Melya Street, Andriivka’s main road. The owner of the house, Zinaida Forostets, returned home after Russian troops retreated from the village and found a pile of dirt with a shovel sticking out of it in her garden.

“The first day after I came back, I realized that someone was buried there. [...] The kitchen was covered in blood, as were the carpets and the sheets,” she said. In her cellar, she found two mattresses, a potbelly stove, an accordion, two cases of bottles, and the words “Lyokha was here — Xiaomi 11 pro.”

Anton Ishchenko

23-year-old Anton Ishchenko was the youngest Andriivka resident to be killed during the occupation. Vasily, another village resident, found Anton’s body next to his garden. According to Vasily, after being held captive by Russian troops with two of his neighbors, the soldiers released him and captured Anton.

“When they captured Anton, these other two guys stayed here while Anton was taken away. Then the guys heard gunshots. Anton never came back. In all likelihood, they shot him and dragged him away, then dumped him by the garden,” said Vasily. Anton’s body was identified by his mother.

Andriy Rudenko

44-year-old Andriy Rudenko’s body was found across the road from the spot where Anton Ishchenko was found. Rudenko’s body was first discovered on April 11, a week and a half after Russian troops retreated from the village. According to his widow, Oxana Rudenko, Andriy disappeared during the occupation.

“I waited a day. Then, on Saturday morning, I couldn’t take it: I went to the Russian soldiers, to the center. I put my hands up because I was worried they would shoot me. But I didn’t get close to them — they wouldn’t let me. They started saying, ‘Stop!’ I began shouting: ‘Let my husband go! Please!’ They said, ‘Go home and don’t come back here anymore.’ But I stayed right there and yelled at them to release my husband. They started shooting into the air, and I thought, my husband’s gone, and if I don’t come home either, I have two kids… After that, we never saw Andriy again,” said Oxana.

Ivan Saliuk, Lyudmila Kardash, and Petro Ostapovsky

Ivan Saliuk, Lyudmila Kardash, and Petro Ostapovsky all died as a result of shelling. Ivan Saliuk’s house burned down after it was hit by a shell; he was sleeping inside. Lyudmila Kardash, according to village resident Larisa Stepanyuk, was hit in the back during a shelling attack.

“We looked through our neighbors’ first aid kits to find hydrogen peroxide, Vishnevsky liniment, and potassium permanganate. Whatever we could use to clean it with; she was in a lot of pain for two days. She wrote her addresses on her arms in marker, because she knew she was going to die. She was really scared that the Russians were going to take her to Belarus; she said, ‘They’ll dump me out on the road somewhere,’” said Stepanyuk.

Petro Ostapovsky, who lived in the nearby village of Chervona Hirka, died in front of his daughter and his wife on February 27. “My husband went out to our farm to feed [the animals], and we went outside and were next to the stairs, and at that moment, a missile came and hit him,” said his widow, Iryna Ostapovska.