Mykola Kravchenya, a resident of a village northwest of Kyiv, says Russian troops killed his son when they occupied the region north of Ukraine’s capital city.
“They came, told them to come out of the house,” he told Euronews. “He and his wife came out of the house, with guns to their heads. They let his wife go she said I have two kids don’t kill me. And then they shot him.”
Kravchenya’s son was one of 40 people in Andriivka who were killed; six of them were buried recently in the village cemetery after being exhumed from where they were buried in people’s gardens.
“I don’t have any more tears. What can I do?” Kravchenya said.
“The most important thing is that (my son) didn’t betray Ukraine. That’s the most important.”
Fragments of bombs still remain in the village, where not one house appears to have been spared.
Several areas have large question marks painted on them, indicating that there could be unexploded devices there such as mines or bombs.
An estimated 1,000 people lived in the village 60 kilometres northwest of Kyiv before the war. Many left before it was under full occupation by Russian troops.