‘Putin’s worldview’: Inside a Ukrainian village-turned death camp
Al Jazeera
In Yahidhe, Russian soldiers held 368 villagers underground for nearly a month – 17 died and the survivors carry deep scars.
Yahidne, Ukraine – Aged between 90 days and 91 years, almost everyone in this northern Ukrainian village was forced into a subterranean hell – and some did not come out alive.
Drunk on stolen booze and impunity, Russian soldiers humiliated, beat, raped, tortured and murdered the villagers, according to survivors – casually, for the slightest objection, a criticising glance or just on a sadistic whim.
That killing spree, marauding and destruction of property encapsulate the “essence” of what the Kremlin and its master planned to do in all of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month.
“It’s just one village, but it reflects the essence of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s worldview, his real goals,” Zelenskyy said on May 8.
In March 2022, Russian soldiers herded 368 villagers, including six dozen children, into the basement of their elementary school. The villagers spent 27 days in the damp, rancid and noisy darkness with no electricity and heat, with little food and so little fresh air that most were hypoxic to the point of catatonia.
