Source: Suspilne Odesa, 19 March 2024. 

This is what happened on 20 June 2022 in occupied Kherson. Kateryna’s sister-in-law received a message that the Russians were breaking down Kateryna’s door. It was late at night and the sister-in-law could not go immediately to see Kateryna due to the curfew that the Russians imposed when they occupied Kherson. Early in the morning the following day she got there and found Kateryna had been raped and tortured to death with a cable tie round her neck. Next to her lifeless body was her three-year-old son.

It was not a robbery: they had not taken her mobile phone, her notebook or her bank cards. Her car stood in the yard with the key in the ignition but they did not take it. They came to kill. 

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She lay on the sofa in an unnatural position, her head twisted, perhaps from a broken neck. There was a noose around her neck. She was naked and covered in blue-black bruises.

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The child was also all bruises, with cigarette burns on his face, temple and forehead. His mother was dead but the boy’s body was still warm.  He had a tight noose around his neck. It was tied so firmly that she broke her fingernail, drawing blood, when she tried to untie it. His skin was bluish. His head appeared enormously huge due to immense swelling and his face so bruised that the marks took a long time to fade. She started doing indirect heart message. She was shouting, “Breathe, breathe, live! I won’t live without you!".

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And then the boy started to breathe. 

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They were her brother’s family, a happy family who loved each other.

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They had a nice house and everything they needed. Kateryna had wanted to have another child. They had plans for the future. But then the full-scale war broke out. Her husband went to the front leaving his beloved wife and son behind. Then Kherson was occupied by the Russians. Kateryna was killed in her own home. The sister-in-law believed the neighbours must have heard Kateryna’s screams as it was summer and the windows of the house were open and broken. She believed that the neighbours heard the screams of the child but no one came to their rescue. There were no witnesses. She phoned her brother, shouting what had happened.  There was shock on the other end of the line. She had to take pictures of the crime scene for the investigation, as her brother had asked, to prove that Kateryna had died because of torture and rape. She had been severely beaten and raped and had a cable tie around her neck. Her son saw it all. He himself was terribly beaten up. The Russian torturers had put out their cigarette stubs on the child’s face and neck.

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Important people came to investigate the case – the chief physician of the hospital and the head of the garrison. They had a terrible attitude to the surviving child saying that he was retarded. Naturally the child was in shock as only an hour ago he had been  saved from a noose around his neck and could not say a word. Besides he was suffering from the beating and clinical death.

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Kateryna’s sister-in-law decided to leave Kherson as soon as they could hide the traces of torture on the child’s face and neck. Besides she was scared for their lives. In two weeks she managed to disguise the traces of torture with make up so that they could not be identified by the Russians.

 

They drove for three days, a journey of 850 km from Kherson to Odesa. They had to make detours and pass thirty Russian checkpoints. When she was leaving one of her neighbours pleaded with her not to go as she was sure that they would be shot by the Russians at the first checkpoint. So she was counting the checkpoints. At one point there was an eighteen-kilometre line of cars. Some people died in their cars as it was scorching hot and some were sick people trying to escape. One epileptic man died and another woman who had had a stroke died too.

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The sister-in-law was trying to escape with a child who had nearly died of beating and torture and she was scared that they would be recognised and stopped. She carried this secret with her. She had to save the child. She had fake documents and pretended that the child was her own child. Then, at the checkpoint before the “grey zone”, their car was stopped. And she heard Russian say to another: “These people should be finished off ……” And the other replied: “I think I’ve had enough for today.” But the first said: “I’m OK, I can continue.” Then the other said: “Oh, let them go. Let the others on the next checkpoint enjoy finishing them off.” The sister-in-law saw bodies lying nearby. She did not see what had happened to them but they were bodies of dead people. She could see at least four bodies.

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Against all odds they managed to escape. The sister-in-law drove for three days. Her right leg got paralysed and she had to press the pedals in the car with her left leg. She had diabetes and her sugar level reached a critical point (there was no insulin in occupied Kherson). Besides her blood pressure was also at a critical level, more than 200. But she promised herself that she would make it, she would have to make it as so much depended on her and she promised to herself that the child would be alive. And she made it.

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The child was constantly crying, he was calling his mother, he was asking to take him back home. 

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Before the tragedy he was a very clever 3 year boy who had learned the Ukrainian and the English ABC from the internet all by himself. He had also learned about the solar system and knew all the planets, their colours and sizes, and how far away they are from the sun. He had a very high IQ.  

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Afterwards he stopped talking because his jaw muscles were damaged and so it was difficult for him to pronounce some sounds and some words. His speech development of speech was held back for a year. He had also suffered asphyxia. A child’s brain is very sensitive and due to lack of oxygen some cells can die. Breathing can also be supressed due to stress leading to the loss of speech. 

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In Odesa doctors diagnosed the following: clinical death, brain swelling, injured wrist joint on his right hand, jaw injury, displaced teeth.  Dentists made eight crowns for his broken teeth and they  also rebuilt his four front teeth.

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Although at the beginning the child did not speak for more than a year, with the help of psychologists he is making good progress. Now, two years later, he can ask and answer questions. The main task is to teach him to speak. His aunt believes that he will manage to start school at the age of six like any other child.

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Notes:

Names have been changed for understandable reasons.

Kherson was occupied by Russia March-November 2022.  It was liberated by Ukrainian forces on 11 November.