Mariopolis

Mariopolis.

Report about who, how and where he killed the Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaraviravichyus

Dmitry Durnev (Kyiv), Julia Balakhonova, with the participation of Mikhail Maglova, October 14, 2022

The material was prepared in conjunction with the publication "Spectrum"

Based on the words of eyewitnesses and participants in the events, the “project” and “spectrum” are told by unknown details of the brutal murder in Mariupol in March 2022 of the Lithuanian documentary Mantas Kvedasyravichyus. The text for the first time sound the stories of Mariupol residents saved by Kvedaravichyus from the besieged city.

Road

It’s hard to believe, but now and in the previous months of the war at the Russian-Ukrainian theater of military operations, “legal” routes through the front line functioned. In the past four months, the main point of safe intersection of the 2500-kilometer line of contact-as the front commander of the Ukrainian army, Valery Zaluzhny, evaluated the length of the front before the last Kharkov offensive-was the village of Vasilyevka of the Zaporizhzhya region. According to the route agreed by both sides, people from the occupied territories go to Zaporozhye (and then often back, in particular, the correspondent watched how the inhabitants of the occupied territories went to the Ukrainian part to draw up documents for children, get money, and so on), and with the territory controlled by the Ukrainian army - to Mariupol, Berdyansk, Melitopol and Kherson. A long turn, for example, in September, was about a couple of weeks -, the lack of comfort and the danger of shelling and detention did not stop people - many Ukrainians are forced to go to the occupied lands to visit relatives and abandoned houses. On September 30, the S-300 air defense missiles was struck on the Ukrainian side on the Ukrainian side, 32 were killed and more than 100 people were injured. Transit stopped indefinitely.

Vasilyevka was not always the only place where the civilians seeped through the front. The war in Ukraine is carried out by the contingent of the Russian army critically insufficient not only for the seizure of the country, but also for the relatively dense closure of the front line. Holes, country and asphalt roads, not blocked by checkpoints of the Russian army, was enough in the spring of 2022. At first, in the south of Ukraine, two ways through the front lined up - between Kherson and Nikolaev and between Mariupol and Zaporozhye. By May, the Nikolaev direction was blocked by the Russian army, and the direct road from Mariupol, Melitopol, Berdyansk through Vasilyevka to Zaporozhye painfully, but still functioned.

The author of this text, like all people from the occupied Mariupol and Volnovakh, all these months live in this way - relatives break out, sad news about the dead and wounded, acquaintances return to their surviving houses, go to the Crimea and further to Europe to their families.

This story began on this road - April 25 near the Zaporizhzhya shopping complex "Epicenter", from where the humanitarian convoys began in Mariupol. It was on this day that one of the authors of this text met people there who told the story of Mantas Kvedaraviravichyus.

Cats

-On the side of the Russians, the Don Quixote mode now works. They clean the rich cars, delay, check, but such as this one missing without looking, you should look as wretched as possible, and everything will be fine, ”explains the volunteer Alexander Sosnovsky, for clarity showing the journalist standing next to the Tavria, with polyethylene closed by the broken side windows.

Sosnovsky began to take out people from the destroyed Mariupol back in March. He does not go to the other side - for the Russian security forces he is a well -known Ukrainian activist, a former officer of the Ukrainian patrol police officer - his colleague in humanitarian operations is also a well -known personality in Mariupol - Denis Minin, in peacetime, the author of the city morning program "Show Kucheryvy" and, most likely, would be immediately arrested.

In April, in a parking lot in Zaporozhye, Alexander was along with his mother Angelina Sosnovskaya. She herself only recently evacuated from the already captured Mariupol, but nevertheless interrupted to go back - to take the products to the neighbors who saved her in the first and a half of the siege of the city and then sheltered Sosnovsky cats.

Cats play an important role in this story. Alexander, together with Denis Minin, created the organization “Vivezemo” - it saves from Mariupol left there during the siege of pets, mainly cats: “How I have not yet come up with dogs,” says Sosnovsky, “especially large ones.”

Alexander himself was evacuated from Mariupol in the early days of the invasion, March 4. His mother remained in the city with her two cats and four son until the end of March. When the author met his mother and son in Zaporozhye at the end of April, Angelina, or Lina, as everyone around her call her, at first refused to speak and hid her face from the camera - she was still about to get to the captured Mariupol and did not want excess publicity. However, then she asked to turn off the recorder and began: "I know how Mantas was killed."

Convoy

We talked with Sosnovskaya twice - after the first story in Zaporozhye “Not for Recording”, we met in September already in Kyiv. Sosnovskaya repeated its history not only to us, but also gave similar indications to the Security Service of Ukraine, as the witness itself says.

Angelina Sosnovskaya is the woman that the Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravravichyus exported from the captured city. During this convoy, he was killed. Various episodes of this story are also restored from the stories of Sosnovskaya satellites according to the convoy and her relatives.

“Somewhere in March 6, Diana told me that I needed my mother’s address, that there is a person who takes people out of there-I handed it to her address and forgot-begins the story of his mother, Alexander Sosnovsky. - Then there were a lot of people who even shot the videos how they were going, and then rested on the volleys of “grades” and returned. But Mantas took his mother at the end of March in Mariupol. ”

Diana Berg is the wife of Sosnovsky, a well-known person in Mariupol, a pro-Ukrainian activist who founded the Tu Art-space in the city. She was a little familiar with Kvedaravichyus, his film “Mariopolis” in 2016 was shown in the city cinema, Diana and her husband were present as spectators, Berg herself said.

Around the 12th of March 12, in one of the Chats of the Mariupol residents, Berg saw a post that there are people who are going to the city. By that time, there was no connection in Mariupol and there was no information about the people left there, Diana transmitted two addresses through the chat - mother -in -law and her own apartment where friends could hide. "If you do not take it out, then at least visit and find out - are they alive?" - says Berg.

The person who was written in chat was Kvedaravichyus. He went to a still surrounded city, simultaneously taking the second part of Mariopolis on a mobile phone.

- On March 27, Mantas came for me, there was no connection, and I did not wait for anyone, got up in the morning, made coffee at the stake. And my neighbor took a screwdriver - a knock on the door, I thought a neighbor. I open-stands Mantas: “Hello, such and such? Three minutes - a bag and a passport! ” I hatched my eyes on him, I saw him for the first time in my life and say: “I have cats! I have 6 cats! I can't!". It turns out that he was shooting me at that moment, then my son showed these shots. I tell him about cats, and he again: “Two minutes - a bag and a passport!” I sat down near the doors and how I began to sob, raise my eyes to him and say: “I will not go without them!”

Lina, according to her, was convinced by the neighbors. “He took my bag behind his back like a backpack, I gave the neighbor the money as much as it was in my wallet, and we went. We went beyond the garages next to the house, and there were already a driver of the Mantas Sasha, Galya car with Julia and the monthly Aliska with them in carrying. Little Alice was born in Mariupol on February 26. And also there was another woman - Marina - with her daughter. " The editors were found by the Sosnovskaya companions - this is Galina Buyanovskaya and her daughter -in -law Julia - the editorial office does not name the name of the woman for the security reasons of her relatives -. They are members of the family of a Ukrainian soldier who at that moment fought on another section of the front, and is now also in the army

All Lina satellites will eventually break into the Ukrainian side. Everything except the Lithuanian director. As follows from Sosnovsky’s stories, the Ukrainian military left Mariupol in those days tried to take out their families from the city. Alexander, the driver of the minibus, on which Lina was evacuated, served in the Armed Forces and entered the city in civilian clothes.

Having met behind the garages in the area of ​​Kronstadtsky Street, the group moved to the Nizhny Novoselovka area - the historical name of the Mariupol region - where the car was left - these three kilometers overcame them with short restrains per day, followed by Lina and Galina’s story.

“We got to the eternal fire on Lavitsky Street, our guys from the Armed Forces were just stood there, we waved their hand and started to move on, went about 900 meters and all-there were already these,” says Lina.

After Mariupol, she does not pronounce the word “Russians”, the short “they”, “these”, sometimes “rashists” sound all the time.

“I am 62 years old,” recalls Sosnovskaya, “but I know what a phosphorus bomb is, what a cassette is, what a howitzer is, what is a“ hail ”, what is a“ beech ” - I know all this! But there is nothing worse than the aircraft ... and it is impossible to run away ...

In the area of ​​house number 37 on the Khmelnitsky Boulevard, the group stumbled upon the supporting point of the Russian army.

- If we went like this (outside the house), Mantas would have survived, and we went into the yard. And we went into the yard because there were bonfires there, people prepared food - we thought that it was safe there. And we just went into the yard, and in the house opposite people with bonfires, as it turned out, they had something like a headquarters on the ground floor. And they are to us: "Stand!" And men were ordered to go to them. Mantas went there as it is - with my bag behind my back. "

When Russian soldiers detained Mantas and Alexander, a shooting battle began nearby. Lina and other women were allowed by local residents into their apartment. “The people who called us were refugees themselves from the left bank of Mariupol, they rented this apartment and also fed two grandmothers who came for a pension from Donetsk before the invasion and stuck. The man says to us: “I also feed these grandmothers!” We didn’t fit in at all on food. ”

The situation was difficult: back women and children could not return as the battle was going on, they could not go further, because they did not know where the car was standing. “I say:“ Let's go ask for men. ” And we went with Marina, ”says Lina. - This meadow from home to the house is not so big, we started to run, and then shelling, we returned - and run again. Somehow we got, we went into the entrance, and they opened the apartment on the ground floor and the entire floor, and this apartment turned into the headquarters, I look: my bag, which Mantas carried, they did not open it, they simply torn it. At the entrance in front of the entrance to the apartment, some of my laundry was lying, well, all ... Two Russian military came to us, it was clear that the Russians, with us at the entrance to this apartment, they spoke inside-neither ranks nor Chevrov, in this shock, I really did not remember them. ”

- We began to explain: “Guys, understand, they just take us out, we have a monthly child, still older child, what are you doing? They just take us out! ” They begin to tell us that they transferred the information to the authorities, they will figure it out and their type will be released, it is supposed to wait another hour. We sobbed there, talked loudly, we heard us and our men spoke out of some room-they say, the girls do not worry, now everything will somehow be clarified ...

Lina was allowed to pick up her bag and sent back to the shelter. There they were waiting for Alexander and Mantas for some time. Then the mother -in -law with the daughter -in -law - Galina and Julia went asking the men.

Galina Buyanovskaya before the war lived in the historical area of ​​Mariupol Romanovka. As her son contacted Kvedaravichyus, Galina does not know, but he says that Mantas, who comes to save her from the city, still dreams of.

- We asked for our accompanying men, and they told us quite sharply that this is not in their competence, the leadership will decide - they have, like, incorrect documents, wait! - says Galina. - We talked in the entrance, into the apartment itself where they were held, we were not allowed. So we returned back, and after a while Sasha came.

The driver told women that he and Mantas were stripped, checked for injuries characteristic of hostilities, as well as tattoos - usually they are looking for nationalist and military tattoos, as well as characteristic scuffs on the shoulders from bulletproof vests, on the finger from the trigger, on the shoulder there are sometimes bruises from the butt - they found a bruise on the back of the Lina’s bag, and which is carried, and he was carried, and he was carried, and he was carried, and he was carried away, and he was carried, and he was carried. They left Mantas "until clarification."

Women and Alexander remained in shelter to wait for news of Mantas. At that moment, in the courtyard, where the group was hiding, the cleansing began.

- Apparently, our (Armed Forces) drove further and began to begin filtration. My God, fly with machine guns, scream: "There is a whole apartment of dill !!!" This is I dill in my 62 years and that, Alice, a month - both dill. And then machines are brought to us and shout: "Lie down !!!" -I had different things in my life, but then something happened to me, I became like a stake, a complete numbness was, the girls tried to put me somehow by the coat, but ... and then these opened the apartment nearby and threw us all there, and the door was driven on both sides were already knocked out. And in the yard the battle begins again, put the anti -aircraft gun under our windows, it starts to fir, all this flies ...

As Lina recalls, a Ukrainian sniper was discovered in one of the houses in the vicinity. In the ensuing shootout, the Russians killed him.

- We waited for Mantas until the morning, began to light, and we eventually went. We were stopped twice along the way, everyone tried to do something with us, we cried, Aliska yelled and somehow all the same reached the bus. At that moment, I did not know that there (near the bus) was waiting for us by the wife of Mantas Anya (Anna Belobrova).

-I saw that Sasha went to some young woman of short stature, talked to her, and she just went right away in the direction from where we came. She went to where Mantas was arrested, she went, and was looking for him until April 2. As a result, she found him on a pile of garbage, they just threw him

The body of Kvedaravichyus - with bullet wounds - Belobrova will find next to the place of detention. Anna's husband took the body to the morgue of Donetsk, and from there through all of Russia to Lithuania - on April 9, the director was buried in his hometown of Birzha.

- You know, I asked myself this question 150 times - and if he had not come for me, would he stay alive? If I did not suit these ten minutes of sobs over the cats? They just could go a different road, and would he survive? He was 45 years old, ... and I am 62 years old, why did God have ordered this way ...?

The path of women with children from Mariupol still continued. On a minibus, they joined a column of three “beads” - with the inscription “children” and red crosses. Near the Metro supermarket, the Russian military again stopped the column on the road from the city. At the checkpoint, Alexander was ordered to take passengers to the filtration point, and to go to the commandant’s office, together with other drivers.

- Sasha understood that he would not pass any filtration - he was the current Armed Forces officer. We are standing, and he says: “So, girls, we are in no hurry, smile and load in the bead!” We did not understand anything, sat down, and he gave Ka-a-k on gas! I sat ahead, he said to me: “Lina, Lina, look - they are not chasing us?!” They would have caught up, shot! I then tell him: "Sanya, there are also posts further!" And he: “Don't worry! They have no walkie -talkies! ” Then they already wiser, got a connection ...

When we drove along the highway, Alexander threw his phone on the side of the road-he remembered that he was coming to SMS about the salary of an Armed Forces officer. And Mantas’s phone was hidden behind the car lining and drove through the front line. Then, from the video clips found there, the film “Mariopolis-2” is mounted, which in the summer will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

Women and children taken out of Mariupol are now safe. Alexander left Ukraine with his family, the interlocutors of the “project” say, it was not possible to get his comments for this text.

Pate

None of the participants in the events with whom the editors said did not see the moment of the murder of Kvedaravichyus. Однако исходя из слов знакомого семьи Кведаравичюса, режисер погиб либо в том дворе, где был задержан, либо в непосредственной близости от того места. Тело режиссера его гражданская супруга нашла возле дома №99 на Проспекте Мира — это на противоположной стороне улицы от места задержания — не больше 500 метров оттуда, где Кведаравичюса в последний раз видели живым , следует из рассказа друга семьи режиссера, что позже подтвердил в разговоре с редакциями и источник в литовском следствии.

Чтобы установить детали событий во дворе и верифицировать рассказы Сосновской и ее спутниц по побегу, редакции также связались с людьми, которые жили в конце марта в том же районе города, где был убит Кведаравичюс, и поговорили с военными аналитиками, собирающими информацию об осаде Мариуполя.

Захватом Мариуполя занимались преимущественно войска Южного военного округа (19-я и 150-я мотострелковые и 7-я десантно-штурмовая дивизии), морская пехота Черноморского флота (810-я бригада), спецназ Генерального штаба (3-я бригада), подразделения милиции ДНР (батальон «Спарта» и «спецназ внутренних войск ДНР») , следует из анализа Института изучения войны и публикаций в СМИ. Согласно карте боевых действий в Мариуполе , которую ведёт Telegram-канал «Хроника боевых действий», контроль над районом от проспекта Мира до улицы Итальянской, которые соединяет бульвар Хмельницкого, перешел под контроль российских войск примерно 21-22 марта, то есть всего за несколько дней до описанных событий. Какие именно российские части двигались по бульвару Хмельницкого, как и по любому другому ограниченному участку города, установить сложно , объясняет аналитик Conflict Intelligence Team Кирилл Михайлов, однако жители окрестных домов предоставили нам важные зацепки.

По словам четверых жителей домов на бульваре Хмельницкого, район дома №35, где, по словам Буяновской, располагался штаб российских военных, у которого Кведаравичюса в последний раз видели живым, в период с 28 марта по 1 апреля контролировали бойцы из ДНР, среди которых встречались и россияне — это распространенная ситуация, в частях ДНР служат добровольцы и наемники из России, а также дончане, жившие в России. Два местных жителя называют конкретные «подразделения»: спецназ МВД ДНР и 6-й танковый взвод ДНР. «В основной массе это были „горе-призывники“ ЛДНР. Точно знаем, что один был из Горловки и один — из Челябинска», — рассказывает Кирилл — мы не называем фамилию нашего собеседника из соображений безопасности —, в конце марта живший недалеко от места, где был убит Кведаравичюс.

Буяновская также уверена, что военные, которых они встретили в штабе, были из ДНР: «У них на ногах и руках были белые ленты — это чистое ДНР, они так прятались. И утром, когда мы уходили, машины появились возле штаба, у них были номера с флагом ДНР, у них, комбат, как я поняла россиянин был. И навсегда теперь перед глазами их ремни — они с бляхами еще советскими, со звездой». Белые ленты на форме , — как следует из репортажей, именно такой цвет использовался российскими войсками в Мариуполе для определения «свой-чужой», – вспоминает и другая наша собеседница — Мария имя изменено, укрывавшаяся вместе с соседями в подвале одного из домов на Хмельницкого. Она также говорит, что среди военных, участвовавших в «зачистке» этого района, были «дэнээровцы» и россияне. Женщина помнит и о жестоких досмотрах, которые устраивали мужчинам: «Издевались они над ними страшно, глумились. Потом они наших мальчиков отправляли собирать „двухсотых“ и „трехсотых“» , то есть погибших и раненых.

Согласно рассказу Кирилла, в штабе оккупантов было несколько старших по званию — у одного из них был позывной «Узбек», другого называли «Малым» — именно его застрелил украинский снайпер. «Из-за этого они были очень злые» — говорит Кирилл. Эта часть рассказа указывает на то, что речь идет об одном и том же месте. И Лина Сосновская и Галина Буяновская вспоминают, что огонь украинского снайпера вызвал переполох во дворе, где предположительно погиб литовец. «Вы прячете снайпера, мы сейчас вас всех порешаем!», — так, по словам Буяновской, кричал один из командиров-оккупантов после того как снайпер убил кого-то из его сослуживцев.

Человек, который угрожал Буяновской, имел позывной «Паштет» и был одним из «офицеров» в штабе на Хмельницкого, рассказывает Галина. Впервые она и ее невестка встретились с ним, когда пытались вызволить Мантаса: «В штабе было человек шесть, возраст где-то от 30 до 65. В этих жутких камуфляжах, непонятно какого происхождения, они производили ужасное впечатление — словно их из тюрьмы взяли, одели и дали автоматы в руки. Говорил с нами „Паштет“, но его перебивали — был там один в возрасте мужчина, в очках, больше 50-ти ему было, он все говорил: „Ну ты позвони комбату!“.

«Паштет», «Узбек» и «Малой» — не уникальные позывные среди донецких сепаратистов. В 2019 году украинское издание «Народная правда» опубликовало возможный список «боевиков ДНР» — в третьей роте «спецназа ДНР» там числятся бойцы с позывными «Малой», «Узбек» и «Паштет». Их реальные имена — Александр Ямковенко, Виктор Радионов и Павел Буденков соответственно.

Однако есть и другой «Паштет» — его данные можно найти в украинских базах данных и публикациях СМИ. Имя этого «Паштета» — Павел Мусиенко, он предположительно родился в Донецкой области в 1993 году , согласно доступным украинским базам данных. Отец Павла, Валерий Мусиенко, — тоже сепаратист из ДНР, был командиром танкового батальона , следует из его интервью на YouTube, с 2014 года он находится под санкциями Канады и Австралии. В 2018 году Мусиенко-младший, возможно, участвовал в перестрелке с другим бойцом из ДНР — мужчины поссорились и, находясь в нетрезвом состоянии, открыли стрельбу из автоматов , утверждали украинские СМИ со ссылкой на силовиков.

Редакции предоставили фотографии Мусиенко («Паштет”-2), Буденкова („Паштет”-1) и Ямковенко („Малой“) для опознания Галине Буяновской и ее невестке. Обе женщины с неполной уверенностью, но узнали того, кто им угрожал на улице Хмельницкого. „Похож, глаза похожи. Взгляд похож“ — указали они на фото Мусиенко. Остальных боевиков, по словам женщин, они видят впервые.

На запрос редакций, отправленный в личные сообщения «ВКонтакте», Мусиенко ответил, что позывной «Паштет» действительно принадлежит ему, но в боях в Мариуполе он не участвовал. По его словам, в то время он находился в Туле. На просьбу предоставить какие-либо доказательства своего алиби Мусиенко не ответил, заблокировав аккаунт журналиста . Редакции также отправили вопросы в аккаунты Ямковенко и Буденкову, но ответа не последовало.

Редакции не могут с уверенностью утверждать, что именно «Паштет”-Мусиенко мог стоять за убийством литовского режиссера. Но он, а также бойцы упоминавшихся выше вооруженных подразделений ДНР, как минимум могут быть важными свидетелями случившегося на бульваре Хмельницкого.

* * *

Когда работа над этим репортажем была почти закончена, редакциям удалось связаться с представителем литовских следственных органов, ведущих свое дело об убийстве Кведаравичюса. На условии сохранения анонимности собеседник сообщил, что Павел Мусиенко, он же «Паштет» «входит в поле зрения следствия, его причастность к задержанию Кведаравичюса устанавливается». От дальнейших комментариев собеседник отказался.

Редактура — Роман Баданин

Фактчекинг — Катя Аренина