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Roadside burial for labourer shot through head in Ukraine’s Bucha -Breaking

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© Reuters. 26-year-old Serhii Lakhhovskyi mourns the loss of Ihor Lytvynenko’s friend. Residents claim that he was found dead in a basement of a Bucha Building, during Russia’s invasion. REUTE

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Please note that this story has graphic descriptions.

By Simon Gardner

BUCHA, Ukraine (Reuters). Serhii Lahovskyi screams as he tries to control his emotions. His closest friend from childhood disappeared during the Russian invasion of Bucha.

   The labourer’s eyes cloudy and half open, black and crimson streaks of blood caked on his face and snaking down to his lips from an exit wound that cracked his skull, Igor Litvinenko had been shot through the mouth at very close range. Just days before his 30th Birthday, he was discovered by the locals.

   Dried clots of blood filled his nostrils. His torso was also covered in bright red welts. Lahovskyi suspects that this resulted after he had been beaten. He was dumped together with another man who was found mutilated. He was found mutilated by his wife.

Reuters is unable to independently verify details about their accounts.

Litvinenko was visiting his mother in order to give her some food, when he vanished.

   “Why did these animals shoot him so?” Lahovskyi spoke Tuesday with wide eyes and a reddened expression, gesturing with one hand as if to tell them they’ve been friends since childhood. “This isn’t Russia. This is a beast.”

   “Just point-blank. It is necessary. “Please, please tell me.”

   He and fellow residents in a housing complex in the ravaged town of Bucha, where Reuters has found a trail of what officials say are extra-judicial killings since Russian troops pulled back last week, grabbed shovels and dug a shallow grave on a grass verge by one housing block.

   Then they used a carpet to carry the remains, placing him in the ditch, folding it over him and covering him with wooden boards, before shoveling earth on top.

   Panting heavily after digging the grave, shaking his head in dismay, local locksmith and odd-job man Urii Churachenko bent down and placed two cigarettes in the earth as a token for his friend.

   “I have known him since childhood,” he said. We have been through so much together. We consider him our companion, our brother and comrade-in-arms. Let them go to hell. That’s it.”

   Reuters has seen at least four victims shot through the head in Bucha, one with their hands tied behind their back.

Local residents have told of the deaths of many others, including one who was shot through his eyes. Another victim was beaten and then mutilated.

   Officials say they have found more than 300 dead so far.

   Ukrainian officials say Russia has committed genocide and have called for an investigation by the International Criminal Court.

According to the Kremlin, these allegations were dismissed as propaganda. Russia’s U.N. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Tuesday to the Security Council, “Russian troops are not targeting civilians.” He dismissed accusations of abuse and stated that they do not attack civilians. According to him, Bucha is under Russian command and “none of the civilians suffered any form violence.”

Bucha, Liudmyla Vrhinska wept when she described how her 32 year-old son, who was shot through one eye, had been killed. His anti-terrorism unit was his work and he is now buried near the housing compound.

   “He went just to take out the trash and he was shot. After seven days, I found him,” she said. “And today I found his friend… What else to tell you?”

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