Gaves and tombs in the Alley of Heroes of the Ukrainian military in the Chernihiv region have been desecrated. A part of the Chernihiv region has been under the Russian occupation for more than a month. The graves of Ukrainian servicemen who have died fighting for Ukraine's territorial integrity since 2014 in the Alley adjacent to the Yartsevo cemetery near the town of Chernihiv have been destroyed by Russian troops, and the state flag has been shelled.
Oleh Seminsky, a member of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada from the Chernihiv region (ruling People's Servant Party), told Report that the vandalism had shocked local residents and the parents of fallen soldiers.
"In the Yartsevo cemetery, you can see how much arbitrariness and savagery the Russians have committed. Here are graves of antiterrorist operation members, our soldiers who fought since 2014 and have died since then. Apparently, there was such exceptional savagery in them that they destroyed the graves. The flags were fired by machine guns. At the same time, they destroyed the place of worship built by the parents with their own money. The parents wrote letters there, praying to God. This is unbearable. By the way, this shrine is subordinated to the Russian Orthodox Church, which is subordinate to the Russian Patriarchate, and they committed such a thing.
Besides, they destroyed the graves of soldiers who fought in Afghanistan. These are the ones who fought and died together with the Soviet army in their time. They (the Russian soldiers) destroyed them with the same arbitrariness and savagery. However, we all fought together in Afghanistan - Russians, Azerbaijanis, Ukrainians and Belarusians. See what happened. I do not know what happened in Putin's head. How could the Slavs, that is, the Russians, be set against the Ukrainians? I do not know what words to use for this."
According to him, Russian troops who came from the direction of Sinkovka village bombed all the villages.
"According to Senkovka residents, the weapons in their vehicles had covers and Russian soldiers greeted the civilian population. That is, they wanted to be welcomed and wanted to demonstrate that they came in peace. But the people did not understand. I want to say that the (Russian) army was so tuned that they thought they would really reach Kyiv in three days. We stopped them and seriously resisted," Seminsky said.
He noted that people were just hiding in the basements during the bombing of Chernihiv:
"People were afraid to go out. Authorities did not know who was where or where to deliver water or food. More than 300 Chernihiv civilians were killed in the bombing. Morgues, of course, did not work at that time. People were buried there, in front of the cemetery. Trenches were dug, and people were temporarily buried in these trenches and simply covered with earth. Now they are reburied in graves individually."