People went crazy before death: terrible details of survival during the occupation of Yagidny

In one wing of the school, there used to be a kindergarten, Ivan Petrovich was the head of the economic department here. He and his fellow villagers survived the Russian occupation.

“They came to us on March 3, from the forest. We did not think that they could come directly to us, in Yagidne. We thought that they would move directly to Kyiv. When they entered the village, they started shooting at the windows from armored personnel carriers. People were shocked. They drove straight to the fences, to the barn, to the well and placed their equipment right under our houses,” recalls Ivan Petrovych.

The occupiers organized their headquarters on the first and second floors of the school. And in the first few days they began to hunt down residents in the village and, at gunpoint, drive everyone into the school basement.

“So they wanted to cover themselves with people. They understood that our people could no longer shoot at them,” explains Ivan Petrovich, who was also in the basement with his family.

The area of ​​the basement is 198 square meters, and there were up to 400 people here. That is, on average, half a square meter per person. Therefore, the hostages sat every 20-30 centimeters, there were almost no lying places.

“Many people, suffocation. We took off our clothes, and there was not even a place to put them. That's why we made hooks from wire, hung them on pipes and hung clothes on them,” adds a resident of Yagidny.

“We sat for a week and asked for permission to prepare food, at least for the children – the youngest child was one and a half months old, a girl. They gave us permission, but warned us not to light a big fire, so that there would not be a lot of smoke – so that ours would not be visible. There was practically no food, but at least to boil the children's water instead of drinking it. For the day, everyone got about a glass of what was cooked – and it had to be divided by two. The occupiers could sometimes give one military ration to the children – it was a laugh for them,” says Ivan Petrovych.

Among the occupants was a chief officer. All issues had to be resolved with him.

“We had little communication with them. They had only one officer. He said: no questions for me, one person should gather all the questions and come to me. And, of course, we had a lot of questions,” the man continues.

Ivan Petrovych stayed in this room with his family and grandchildren. The occupiers threw children's beds in the yard, the residents made them into two-story ones – to save space.

Ivan Petrovych showed in which position he and his wife sat in the basement for 27 days.

“My wife was sitting across from me. We sat like that both day and night. And they slept sitting up. When the legs were swollen, they stood up. We stand, then sit down again. Because there is no more room. There was no place to stretch out even a leg. Nearby was a pregnant woman, a woman with children. So we stayed for 27 days. Since we all moved very little, everyone's legs became swollen, swollen, the skin cracked, burst, veins popped out, all of this festered,” he said.

In a closed room, people lost touch with reality. That is why they started keeping a calendar on the wall. Lists were also recorded here.

“We were losing hope. We thought we would not survive. That's why they wrote their names on the walls, so that at least later it would be possible to establish who was here,” the man clarified.

These conditions made people sick, 10 hostages died.

“There wasn't enough oxygen, there wasn't enough food, there wasn't enough movement. There was no light. Under such conditions, people began to get sick. A dying man went mad before his death. And the children saw all this. They asked: what about grandma or grandpa?” Ivan Petrovych recalls, unable to hold back tears.

The corpses were taken to the school fire pit, which was used as a morgue.

“We also had to ask for permission to move the bodies. And when 3-4 dead people have already gathered in the fire pit, we again ask permission from that officer to bury the corpses. Corpses were taken away on garden wheelbarrows and buried. He gave us 40 minutes, an hour, no more. And it was necessary to bury four people, it is at least enough time to dig one hole for everyone,” Ivan Petrovich shared the terrible details.

The occupiers did not provide any medical assistance to the people. Children have chickenpox. Almost every child got sick, and adults who had not had chickenpox before.

“It's a temperature of up to 40 degrees, a rash. At the beginning, when there was a pill left, the same aspirin, it was divided among five children. This is more to fool and calm the baby. There was not enough oxygen, once we asked them to let a woman with the smallest child stand in the corridor so that the child could breathe fresh air. They had an answer: “What did you want? This is war. He will die – he will die, there will be fewer of you in the basement,” said Ivan Petrovich.

When people began to die, a doctor from the occupiers descended into the basement. He did not last even five minutes, and told the officer that another week – and no one alive would remain there. And then the Russians “responded” to people's pleas to cut out at least a small window to let air in. The occupiers allowed to cut a hole in the wall.

One day, the military turned on the light in the basement. They brought their press — the propaganda newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.

“The racists said that we have already taken Chernihiv, Kyiv, Kharkiv… That the president signed the capitulation and went abroad with his family. But no one believed them. And they tell us: and you learn our anthem, wear red armbands and go over to our side,” continues the resident of Yagidny.

On March 30, 2022, people in the basement heard the sounds of shelling and explosions. We understood that the battles are already taking place nearby.

“They locked us all in the basement, propped up the door. We began to understand that something is already happening that is not according to their program. We could not leave. A huge hum started. We cut a hole in the bottom of the door, and through it we could see their equipment moving away and them scrambling. And then everything quieted down. We pushed open the door, went out, and saw that there was not a single rashist on the school grounds. But no one could go anywhere, because everyone was afraid,” Ivan Petrovych told about the last day of captivity.

On March 31, the Ukrainian military came to the territory of the school.

Ivan Petrovich and Agatoliy Anatolych

After what happened, neither the school nor the kindergarten will be able to work in the building. A memorial will be organized here. The surviving objects are marked with tags – these are already exhibits of the future museum.