Heartbreaking photos show a small basement where hundreds of Ukrainian civilians were held captive by Russian soldiers for nearly a month.
The village of Yahidne near the city of Chernihiv was one of the places that succumbed to an overwhelming Russian force shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began.
As the local residents have since the village’s liberation revealed, at least 300 civilians were held captive by Russian troops in a small and damp basement for more than three weeks.
During their time in captivity, at least 20 civilians died due to the harsh conditions and lack of provisions.
In one of the pictures from the village, the 700-square-foot basement where three hundred people were held captive can be seen packed with people including children and the elderly.
As 60-year-old Mykola Klymchuk, one of the surviving victims, revealed, he had to tie himself to a railing to avoid falling while standing and sleeping.
“This was my half-a-meter of space. I tied myself to the railing here with my scarf so I wouldn’t fall over. I spent 25 nights like this,” he told BBC.
According to the grandfather, the Russian soldiers would repeatedly use their captives as a human shield during battle.
Meanwhile, local council member Halyna Tolochina pointed at the wall in the basement on which the residents have written the names of their deceased countrymen.
As she revealed, the first among the twenty deceased civilians was an elderly man who struggled with breathing in the suffocating conditions with limited air supply.
Following his death, the man’s body lay in the boiler room for several days before the Russian captors finally allowed the civilians to go outside and dig graves for the dead.
Among the captives was also 15-year-old Anastasiia who was held captive alongside her father and grandmother.
“There was barely any room. We were living sitting up. We were sleeping sitting up. Not that we slept at all,” she said.
According to the reports, it wasn’t until April 2 that the last of the captives emerged from the basement following the retreat of Russian troops from the village of Yahidne.
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