The carpet, in which the body of a deceased person, is put into a hole that has just been dug by four men. A woman is crying nearby. Algerian photographer Zohra Bensemra took this photo for the Reuters international agency in Bucha on April 5, 2022.
In this carpet was the body of 30-year-old Igor Litvinenko. One of the men who hides him is his friend Sergei Lagovsky. The woman nearby is Lyudmila Verginskaya, the mother of another deceased, he is buried nearby. Almost a year after the photo was taken, we tell its story and the story of the deceased Igor Litvinenko
The text was prepared by the memory platform Memorial, which tells the stories of civilians killed by Russia and the dead Ukrainian military, especially for Channel 24 . To report data on the losses of Ukraine – fill out the forms: for the dead military and civilian victims.
“He was our only son”
Igor was found in the basement of a house on Central Street in Bucha. It was on this street that the Russian invaders set up one of their headquarters.
“I worked for a long time as a saleswoman at the Central Department Store in Kiev, but a few years ago I became seriously ill and have a disability. Apart from Igor, my husband and I have no more children, and they are unlikely to have any,” says 52-year-old Elena Litvinenko, the mother of the deceased.
Father, also called Igor, worked as a truck driver. My son also loved cars since childhood. He quickly learned to drive, and when he grew up he chose the profession of a car mechanic. He worked in his specialty at the enterprises of the Kyiv region. He also worked as a plumber. In his free time, he liked to fish and hang out with friends.
Igor respected us parents. Appreciated, loved. When he began to live separately, he became very close to his father. He often consulted with him, they had their own topics for conversation, common hobbies. Igor was such that he thought of others first of all, he often helped the elderly, – said Elena Litvinenko.
Igor Litvinenko / Photo courtesy of Channel 24
In the spring of 2022, Igor planned repairs in his apartment. In the autumn he wanted to get married, dreamed of having children. Mom knows that Igor had a girlfriend, but did not have time to meet her.
“They put a gun in their mouth and fired”
Igor Litvinenko lived in a neighborhood that the locals call Warsaw. His parents are 200 meters from Vokzalnaya Street, where the first fierce battles took place in Bucha.
“We did not believe until the very end that a war would begin, so we remained in the city. When the invaders entered Bucha, we thought that it would all be over in a few days,” says Elena Litvinenko.
In the first days of the invasion, Igor Litvinenko's house was hit by two shells. Windows were blown out in the apartment. Friends Sergey, Valeria and Lesya invited Igor to their place – to an apartment on Vodoprovodnaya Street. This is not far from Litvinenko's parental home. And also Vodoprovodnaya – next to the kindergarten “Yablonka”, where, after the occupation of Bucha, the Russian soldiers had a headquarters.
Vokzalnaya Street in Bucha, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed Russian military equipment, April 6, 2022 / Photo by AP
On February 28, 2022, the parents saw Igor for the last time. He came to them on a bicycle, brought food.
In early March, the Russian military completely occupied Bucha. Especially dangerous was the accumulation of their military equipment in the regions and near the headquarters.
From the window we saw them walking around with machine guns, shooting at animals. Some dressed up in civilian clothes. It was terrible. If they didn't like something, the only solution was to shoot them. There was no longer a connection. We did not have the opportunity to write or call Igor. And he – to us, – Elena remembered.
After lunch on March 8, 2022, Igor decided to go to his mom and dad. Took a food bag and set off. Friends refused. But Sergey was adamant. Then they told their parents his words: “I don't threaten anyone. I don't have weapons. I bring food.” Before leaving, the friends tied a white bandage around Litvinenko's arm.
Further, Elena was told about the incident by people who lived nearby. As soon as Igor left, already near the next house, he was stopped by two Russian soldiers. They checked his passport and mobile phone, and after a few minutes of talking, they tied Litvinenko up and took him somewhere.
A resident of the area, who wished to remain anonymous, said that she saw how Igor was shot. According to her, this happened just a few minutes after the man was seized. She told her parents: “The Russian soldier put the guy on his knees, put the weapon in his mouth and fired.” According to eyewitnesses, Igor's body was thrown into the basement of a house down Central Street 33v.
“Maybe you'll find your son there”
Meanwhile, Igor's parents decided to leave Bucha. “On the morning of March 9, my husband sent me to a group of people who were evacuated to Romanovka on foot, while he himself was trying to find his son,” says Elena Litvinenko.
On the way to the house where Igor lived with friends, there were two Russian checkpoints. As soon as my father got to the first one, the invaders ordered us to put our hands up and asked where we were going. The husband replied that he was looking for a son. But they turned it around – they say, a curfew (Russian soldiers in the occupied territory lived according to the time of Russia, – Channel 24).
An hour later, the father was checked at two checkpoints. One of the soldiers told him to check at the house at 38 Vodoprovodnaya Street: “Maybe you will find your son there.”
I went there and was horrified: there were many dead people lying there. But the son was not among them. Then I came to the apartment of Sergei's friends, where I found out that he was heading towards us. I hoped that Igor had run for cover. I thought maybe he was taken prisoner, – says the father.
On the way back, at one of the checkpoints, the Russian military advised him to look for his son in the basement. “I answered – so take me to that basement. He got angry, his face turned red, reloaded his weapon, pointed at me and told me to get in immediately. So I left. Then for a few more days I was looking for my son, asking friends, but – nothing,” says Igor Litvinenko.
On March 14, 2022, the man left Bucha and, together with his wife, who was in Romanovka, reached the West of Ukraine.
“The investigator called on the phone and said that Igor was temporarily buried near the house”
Elena and Igor were looking for their son through social networks, the police, they believed that he was alive. And on March 31, the body of Igor Litvinenko was found in the basement on Central Street by local residents Alexei Tarasevich and Tatyana Nedashkovskaya. Nearby was another deceased, Tatyana's man – Vasily Nedashkovsky.
After the liberation of Bucha, the bodies of the dead were searched for and taken from basements, landings, and Russian dugouts for several weeks. There were not enough places in the morgues. The locals were forced to bury the dead in the yards, where the bodies were waiting for exhumation.
Temporary grave of Igor Litvinenko near the house where the guy was killed / Photo “Buchanskiye Novosti”
So it was with the body of Igor. On April 5, 2022, he was wrapped in a carpet that the locals found right on the street. Together with other loot, Russian soldiers threw it away, leaving Bucha. During the occupation, the military broke into the house of the Buchans and took out carpets, pillows, blankets from there – they laid them in tanks or other equipment to keep warm.
On April 5, the investigator called us on the phone and said that Igor had been shot dead, and his body was temporarily buried near the house at 34a Vodoprovodnaya Street. Our son was found by the guys who live nearby. In addition to Igor, Vladislav Verginsky was also buried here, he was killed in the private sector opposite the Yablonka kindergarten,” Elena Litvinenko said.
After the investigator called, Igor's father immediately left for Bucha for identification.
“We didn’t give DNA, I recognized it at the morgue. However, only on April 20 they called us and said that we could pick up our son’s body. On April 21, Igor’s wife and friends arrived at the Buchansky morgue. The body of my Igor was in a clean white bag, it was opened, and I was convinced that it was him,” says Igor Litvinenko.
On April 22, Igor Litvinenko was buried at the central cemetery in Bucha.
“We called up the investigator who is in charge of our case. Igor was shot with a double burst of machine guns through his mouth. Death was instantaneous. That's all we were told about his murder,” Elena Litvinenko said.
Mom says that Igor Litvinenko was a support for her and her husband. After February 24, his dad lost his job. Mother is sick. She says: “My son often said:” Mom, you taught me to do good. “He died because he was worried about his family. He was our only son. Why was he killed?! Doesn't fit in my head.”
Help the family of the deceased Mother's card: 4731 2191 1635 3669 Elena Litvinenko
