What is known about the murder of 16-year-old ‘partisans’ in occupied Berdyansk?
There are still many unknown circumstances in the murder of 16-year-old Tyhran Ohanesyan and Mykyta Khanhanov in Berdyansk, Olha Reshetylova, coordinator of the Media Initiative for Human Rights, said in a Facebook post dated June 25.
A video of Tyhran appeared on social media. In it, he is seen holding a rifle and wearing tactical gloves: "Two for sure, it's death, guys. Goodbye! Glory to Ukraine!" presumably referring to the elimination of the Russian soldiers.
Reshetylova said that Ukrainian human rights activists have been working on the teenagers' case since the fall of 2022, when so-called investigators in occupied Berdyansk abducted Tyhran from his home and brutally tortured him for five days. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation was preparing the case for trial, accusing the boys of "preparing a sabotage on the railroad."
In June 2023, the European Parliament passed a resolution demanding the release of the teenagers from the occupied territory.
Then, according to Reshetylova, the charges against the boys were separated: Mykyta was to be charged with "theft" and Tyhran with "sabotage". A few days ago, an "investigator" came to pick them up with an armed escort, but the boys managed to escape.
On the day before their murders, they paid a visit to the occupation police, and half an hour before the call informing their parents that the boys had been killed, Tyhran's mother talked to him, Reshetylova writes. The boy was "calm" then, saying that he was walking with Mykyta and thinking about how to celebrate the latter's birthday. On June 25, he was to turn 17.
"At the moment, we see a lot of discrepancies in facts, timing, clothes," Reshetylova said.
“The parents have not seen the boys' bodies yet. Instead, their relatives have been taxed with interrogations and searches since yesterday evening. This gives grounds to question the main version of the investigation about the attack on the police. At the very least, Tyhran and Mykyta's parents believe that the whole shootout and the dying video was staged, (in order) to kill the boys.”
She said Ukrainian investigative authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the murder of the children. The Media Initiative for Human Rights is cooperating with them and will also conduct its own detailed investigation into the circumstances of the murder of the 16-year-old boys.
Read also:
Ukrainian partisans blow up Russian checkpoint in Kherson Oblast
Moscow is next, says Russian partisans who raided Belgorod Oblast
Russian partisans back in Belgorod Oblast, declare second phase of operation in Russia
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
