By James Mackenzie and Silvia Aloisi

YAHIDNE in Ukraine (Reuters) – The names of the deceased are written on the wall of a basement school where more than 300 residents claim they were kept for weeks by Russian occupiers. Yahidne is a village located north of Kyiv.

Halyna tolochina, who was part of the village council struggled for her composure as she scanned the list. It had been written in black in plaster on either side of a green doors. In the darkened warren, she claimed she, along with hundreds, were being held prisoner.

The names of seven people who were killed by Russian soldiers are written to the left side of the entrance. The 10 names of those who were killed in the cold basement conditions, she stated, were to her right.

Tolochina stated, “This old man died first,” pointing to Muzyka D. for Dmytro Muzyka’s name. His death was officially recorded March 9. He died in the large room.

Muzyka was rumored to have been dead for some time in a boilerroom. Finally, during an interruption in shelling, people were allowed to transport the body to the village cemetery and gravediggers quickly dug.

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Reuters interviewed seven Yahidne residents who claimed that at most 20 people were either killed or died during the Russian occupation. Ukrainian authorities did not release an official death count.

Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the accounts of the villagers. Two bodies were wrapped in plastic sheets and one body was found in a freshly dug grave near the village.

For comment, the Kremlin has not responded to inquiries about Yahidne.

These accounts add to the growing evidence from Ukrainian civilians about the suffering suffered in Kyiv’s towns during weeks of Russian occupation following the February 24th invasion.

Nadiya Buchenko, the victim of the final attack on the basement walls, was killed on March 28th, Tolochina stated. This occurred two days prior to the withdrawal by Russian troops from the village after their attempt at the Ukrainian capital had stalled.

Tolochina also listed other victims she claimed were murdered by Russian soldiers. These included Anatolii and Viktor Shevchenko, whom Tolya refers to as Anatolii.

She pointed out the Shevchenko VI name and said “This one was buried at the yard.” She also mentioned the Shevchenko T name, which has yet to be found.

Reuters spoke to six additional residents who confirmed Tolochina’s story. They described Tolochina being kept in concrete basement rooms with 60 children. There was no water or food, and there were no electrical outlets.

Following the discovery in Kyiv of mass graves, including Bucha and Motyzhyn in which bodies had been found with their hands tied and then shot in the heads, the Ukrainian authorities accuse Russia of war crimes.

Russia denies any extrajudicial killings, torture or abuse of civilians.

According to the Kremlin, its forces do not target civilians and has accused West and Ukrainian authorities of fabricating evidence.

LOOTING

Two of the villagers interviewed for Reuters claimed that they were initially treated well by the Russian troops who arrived in March. Others began looting immediately.

Petro Hlystun aged 71, witnessed the incident and stated that “they started looting and took all they could get.” “There was a flashlight and a tablet from Poland that my son brought. It was all taken by them.”

They were told that on March 5, they were placed in the school basement and were given brief rests to stretch or relieve their muscles.

They were told by the Russian soldiers that they would be held in captivity for their safety, according to the local villagers.

Because there was no place for all to sit down, they described how everyone shared buckets of water to use the bathroom.

Olha Meniaylo (an agronomist) said that it was nearly impossible for her to breathe. She was there with her son Olha Meniaylo and his wife, a 32-year old man, and their two children, a baby boy of 4 months and a girl of 11 years.

According to her, the Russian soldiers wanted a list of people living in the basement for food organization. She had already tallied 360. Other villagers also claimed there were more people than 300.

It was hard for the older to remain in darkness without fresh air. So, most people who die were the old.

She stated that March 12 was the date of the first burial. It included a death by soldiers, four old people and four others who were trapped in the basement. Some Russian soldiers let some young men dig shallow graves.

Meniaylo explained that as soon as the digging began, shelling started. For protection from shelling, those who did the digging had no choice but to rest on dead bodies. My husband was also there.

One morning, a woman with a cow was taken under escort to fetch milk for her children. Other people were allowed to leave at will, according to the orders of the Russian soldiers. The villagers returned home to find everything, from TV sets to underwear for women, missing.

EXHUMED BODIES

    It was not until the Russians started their withdrawal on March 30 that those trapped in the basement ventured out permanently, said 64 year-old Tamara Klymchuk.

“We opened it. It was as if we were being born all over again.

Yahidne is a rural village with just five streets. It was once a very popular spot for Chernihiv residents to buy a vacation cottage. Now it is a ruin with scattered military gear and burned houses.

The school is just a few hundred meters away from an abandoned tank. Police officers, the Ukrainian army, and explosive disposal technicians search through the rubble, exhuming corpses and recovering unexploded ammo.

    “We had a very good life,” said Klymchuk, whose son-in-law was 50-year-old Viktor Shevchenko, one of the two brothers that villagers say were killed by Russian soldiers. “We didn’t expect such pain to come upon us,” he said.

She said Viktor was killed on March 3rd. After sending his two young children and his wife to school, he had left to protect his home.

Russian soldiers told the village that Viktor was wearing a uniform of military rank and was armed with an assault rifle.

Klymchuk didn’t witness the crime, but claimed she did see Viktor’s remains after the body was exhumed by sappers from a mass burial at her request. According to her, he was wearing blue jeans with a black jacket.

“They shot him in the head.”