300 Villagers Held Captive in Inhumane Conditions
As Russia invaded Ukraine from the North in a major attempt to capture Kyiv, the village of Yahidne came under control of the Russian army. Yahidne is located just South of Chernihiv:
A year after the month-long occupation in March 2022 TIME magazine published a special report on the heart-breakening events that took place in Yahidne. A whole village of more than 300 residents were held captive in a school basement for close to a month.
Now Alex Crawford, with cameraman Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham and producer Artem Lysak, now made an update that shows the work of the professionals who collect the evidence to bring the perpetrators of the war crimes to justice.
Ukraine school siege: Will country’s biggest war crimes trial bring justice for Yahidne survivors?
The memory of “28 days of horror” – when Russian soldiers trapped almost the entire population in a school basement – is still raw.
In the middle of their performance, the singers fall silent, their heads bowed to honour those who lost their lives when the Russians took over the village.
“We went in as children and came out as adults. Your values change when you can’t eat, sleep or go for a shower,” says 16-year-old Marina, one of the singers. “It’s hard to forget and hard to remember.”
Back in late February 2022, in the violent first month of war, almost the entire village – with a population of around 400 before the Russian invasion – was held captive below ground in dark, freezing temperatures with little electricity.
Watch the report below.
