NV correspondent reveals terrifying details of collaborating Mamon brothers, accused of directing Russian missile strike on Hroza
The brothers accused of directing a Russian missile strike on a public gathering in the village of Hroza, Kharkiv Oblast, killing 55 people, have been described as “animals” and “fascists” by a former neighbos.
Ukraine’s SBU security service identified the two brothers as 30-year-old Volodymyr Mamon and his younger brother, 23-year-old Dmytro Mamon, the SBU reported on Telegram on Oct. 11.
The brothers’ Russian passports and their so-called police certificates in the ranks of the occupation "authorities" were shared by the SBU. Both suspects and their families fled to Russia before the Kharkiv oblast’s liberation and continued their service to Russia. They remotely recruited and formed their own network of Ukrainian informants to collect information on the Ukrainian Armed Forces deployment and regional mass events under the pretext of friendly correspondence.
NV correspondent Serhiy Okuniev arrived in Hroza immediately after the tragic Oct. 5 attack. The next day, the locals gave him the names of their former neighbors, calling them torturers and collaborators.
Larysa Shevchenko (the woman's name has been changed for security reasons and is known to the editors - ed.) lives very close to the cafe that was hit by a Russian missile on Oct. 5. Her family survived the Russian occupation of Hroza, during which Larysa's house was searched several times, her husband was threatened with execution, and her son was kidnapped and sent to a torture chamber.
Shevchenko says that these and other crimes were committed by the Mamon family, who immediately agreed to cooperate with the Russians and became so called “policemen” in the village. She called them fascists 11 times during a 20-minute conversation with Okuniev, which occurred a week before the SBU’s report.
Read also: Documenting Russia's deadliest strikes against Ukrainian civilians
During the Russian occupation, her son was abducted, and for a long time there was no information about his whereabouts or status. The woman says she walked 35 kilometers to Kupyansk in search of her son and was ready to be killed at Russian checkpoints.
"I came to the police station where they (the occupiers) keep prisoners. They don't say whether this or that person is here or not. But if you want to pass a parcel and it is accepted, then apparently he is here. That's how I found out that my son was in the torture chamber in Kupyansk.
Larysa says her son was electrocuted and tied to metal bars. At one point she saw the occupiers leading a column of Ukrainian hostages down the street. They were beaten and forced to walk in a bent position with their heads as low as possible. When people fell, they were beaten and forced to stand up again.
Later, the occupiers began to force the prisoners to work. In particular, they forced people to clear up the rubble of the former customs office. This building housed the headquarters of the occupiers, and was destroyed by a Ukrainian strike.
Larysa claimed that hundreds of people may have been held in various torture chambers and basements in Kupyansk.
During the rapid counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the fall of 2022, the occupiers literally fled the city and lost control over some of the prisoners. Shevchenko's son was lucky enough to escape the day before Kupyansk was liberated.
Okuniev reported to the SBU and the Kharkiv regional prosecutor's office the information he had received from Hroza residents about alleged crimes committed by the Mamon family.
The suspects began gathering information about the planned reburial of a fallen Ukrainian soldier in Hroza village in early October. They understood that civilians, including their acquaintances and those who provided them with information, would certainly die as a result of the hostile attack, the SBU claimed.
Having learned the exact address and time of the wake of a fallen soldier, Volodymyr Mamon passed this information to the Russian occupiers, who launched a targeted Iskander-M tactical missile attack on Hroza on Oct. 5.
The Iskander missile hit a cafe in the village of Hroza, Kharkiv Oblast, where about 60 villagers had gathered on Oct. 5. The building collapsed and people were trapped under the rubble, resulting in 55 deaths, including that of a six-year-old child. Only 49 bodies were identified. Six children were orphaned.
Read also: Relatives bidding final farewell to fallen defender among 52 killed in Hroza
The regional prosecutor's office said that the cafe was hosting a wake, attended only by civilians, who were saying their final goodbyes to the deceased and buried soldier Andriy Kozyr, who was fatally wounded in Popasna. He was buried in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, but his son Denys decided to rebury his father in his home village.
His son and his 20-year-old wife, Nina, were also killed in the cafe. About half of the village of about 100 people were there. Investigators believed that the attack on the café was highly precise, so they had been looking for those who may have directed it among the local population.
On the basis of the collected evidence, the SBU charged both brothers with state treason and a crime committed by prior conspiracy (Part 2 of Article 111 and Part 2 of Article 28 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Volodymyr Mamon's criminal acts were additionally qualified as aiding and abetting a crime, committing a criminal offense by a group of persons, and violating the laws and customs of war (Part 5 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
This was the deadliest Russian attack against Ukrainian civilians in 2023.
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