Ukrainian survives execution - his brothers don't

Created: 05/16/2022, 12:44 p.m

By: Jan-Frederik Wendt

In the Ukraine war, Russian soldiers want to kill Mykola Kulichenko.

The Ukrainian survived the execution, but his brothers did not.

KIEV - During the Ukraine conflict, soldiers from Russia broke into the home of Mykola Kulichenko and his two brothers in a village near Chernihiv.

By then, Russian President Vladimir Putin's army had been besieging and shelling the city northeast of Kyiv for weeks.

Russian forces had killed hundreds of people in the region during the occupation through April.

Two of them were Dima and Eugen - the older and younger brothers of Mykola Kulichenko.

And if the occupiers had their way, Kulichenko wouldn't be alive today either.

He reports this to the Ukrainian news portal Suspil'ne novyny.

Eugen's army uniform and his grandfather's medals are said to have been the fate of the brothers.

The Russians found this in the Ukraine war.

After the soldiers had beaten Eugen in front of the house, the brothers were taken from the village in a military vehicle to an abandoned steel mill about 40 kilometers away.

Ukraine War: Russia's soldiers torture brothers over three days

For three days, Kulichenko and his brothers were interrogated, beaten and tortured in the ruins, says the survivor.

They were then blindfolded and their hands and feet tied.

The hole in the ground for the bodies of the Kulichenkos had already been dug.

"Here I was lying next to my older brother, my younger one was a bit further away," Kulichenko said.

“Eugen was shot first and thrown into the pit, then Dima.

Then they shot me, I was kicked and I fell on Dima.” Finally, the Russian soldiers covered the brothers' bodies with earth.

News in the Ukraine war: A prisoner has considered his execution by Russian soldiers.

(symbol photo) © Alexander Zemlianichenko/dpa

But Kulichenko wasn't dead. The bullet that was supposed to kill him went straight through his cheek.

Despite having his arms and legs tied, he was able to free himself from the pit and escape to the next village.

There Valentina Petrovna brought the injured man to her house and cared for him.

"When we meet now, we always hug.

Kulichenko became my family,” says Petrovna.

Ukraine War: Authorities investigate more than 10,000 Russian war crimes

The prosecutor's office in Ukraine has now investigated the crime scene and confirmed Kulichenko's account, reports the news portal Suspil'ne novyny.

The case is now among more than 10,000 alleged Russian war crimes prosecuted by Ukrainian authorities.

(jfw)

Reports of sinking morale among Russian troops in the Ukraine war are piling up.

In the latest case, soldiers are supposed to shoot their own vehicles so they don't have to go to the front.

In addition, rumors about Putin's health have been circulating for weeks.