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The village of Lhiv is located in the Chernihiv region, approximately 50 km from the border with Belarus. In February-March 2022, the settlement was partially occupied. Russian troops entered Ukrainian territory from Belarus. According to local residents, about a thousand soldiers arrived in the village. They placed equipment under buildings and shelled Chernihiv. Trenches were dug throughout the village.
They immediately looted the local store and settled near the forest, in the quarry. Russian military personnel lived in civilian houses, and there were cases where homeowners, even with children, were expelled.
Local residents were detained and constantly checked. Russian soldiers did not allow men to leave the yard, only women and children. They were told that if they saw someone outside twice, they would be shot. They could stop, kneel down, interrogate, or search.
One of the local residents served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He was demobilized half a year before the full-scale invasion but had never fought in the East. They took him out onto the street in the middle of the night, beat him, abused him, and tried to extract information. The Russians left him tied up on the street, where he spent four days. He spent the first night even without outerwear. But later, they released him.
The entire family suffered from the rampage of Russian military personnel. Later, journalists managed to identify the commander, Ruslan Kuliyev from Magnitogorsk, who committed war crimes. Also, his subordinate Andriy Chudin, who beat the man. On November 2, the Novozavodsk district court of Chernihiv sentenced these two Russian servicemen in absentia, accused of abusing residents of the occupied village.
They fired at civilian cars. A couple from Kuvychi was driving from Kuvychi to Chernihiv in a car with white flags. The man needed hemodialysis, so the family tried to reach the hospital. Russian troops shelled their car with the BM-27 Uragan MLRS. As a result of the shelling, the car caught fire, the man died, and the woman was injured. Russian soldiers put her in an armored personnel carrier and took her to the village of Luhiv, which was already under their occupation at that time. A local veterinarian and hairdresser removed the bullet, performed bandages, and saved the wounded woman.
During the occupation, there was no electricity, gas, or water in the village. Locals cooked food in ovens, cauldrons, or on the street. There was no communication either. Houses and cars in the village were destroyed and burned.
Before leaving, Russian troops robbed houses and took everything they found valuable, even domestic animals or poultry. In the morning of April 1, 2022, they left the village.
The preparation of this informational material was made possible by the Human Rights in Action Program, implemented by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union with the support of #USAID. The views and interpretations presented here do not necessarily reflect the views of the US Government, USAID, or #UHHRU. The authors and UHHRU are solely responsible for the content of the publication.
