Witness: Shooting by Russian soldiers of an evacuation convoy with children from Makarov

24.02.2023

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A resident of Makarov, Kyiv Oblast, told how she and her family were leaving the city captured by Russian soldiers. The Russian command allowed them to leave, giving them a so-called «green corridor». However, as soon as the evacuation column of civilians came across Russian military equipment, they opened fire on people. According to the woman, the Russian soldiers shot at them for ten minutes, while her family crawled through a field far away from the «Russian worl».

Her entire family was wounded, and her husband did not survive. Doctors removed fragments from her son’s hand, and he will need years of rehabilitation.

«At first, our house was hit by several bombs, and then during the evacuation, they shot at the cars and killed my sister’s husband. Her entire family was injured», – said the resident of Makarov, who returned to the city after the Russian armywas driven out.

«Were you traveling in an evacuation or humanitarian convoy?», – the journalist clarified.

«Yes. We were leaving in a convoy. They gave us a «green corridor». We left and stayed with my husband at the checkpoint until midnight. They told us «You can go». We were driving, and at the end of Lipivka, on the way to Korolivka, they started shooting at us with BMPs. Five cars made it through. However, there were already dead and wounded there. Six cars stopped, and one car returned to Makarov. And then they started shooting at us… I don’t know, it was like fire coming at us (shows a circle with her hands).

The bullets were so big, I don’t know what it was because we were in a car. Something hit the hood, and it flew off, and only then did we start jumping out of the car», – recalls another resident of Makarov.

«I didn’t know which way to run – left or right. My child was lying in the car. One, two, and my husband was lying there too… And then everyone decided to run into the field and fall into the ditch and lie there. And then they started finishing us off in the field for 10- 15 minutes. Then we crawled through the field and our people were already standing there. They picked us all up», – recalls a resident of Makariv, showing her injured hand.

Her sister said that there is no house on their street that has not been hit by shelling. There is almost a crater from a shell every five meters.

«You see, it hit the building (pointing to the neighboring high- rise – Editor). When it hit our neighbors garage, we were still hiding. But they were sitting in the cellar. We evacuated later. The whole street was on fire, and we were driving away», – recalled the sister of the woman who lost her husband during the evacuation.

According to the National Police of Ukraine, there were several cases of Russian occupiers shooting at cars in which Ukrainians were trying to leave the occupied territory near Makariv. In April, a car was found where an entire family was shot by infantry fighting vehicle. A two-year-old child, a 14-year-old teenager, two women, and a grandmother were killed. The crime against humanity was committed in mid-March in Havyronshchyna near the village of Makariv.