8:05 am: In Boutcha, “brutal Russians” “shot a man who was going to the supermarket”
“Right in front of my eyes, they shot a man who was going to get food from the supermarket”: in Boutcha, Olena told AFP how “brutal” Russian forces, different from regular soldiers, sowed terror in the city. Throughout the month of occupation by the Russian forces, Olena, 43, lived in shelter with her children aged 7 and 9, in the cellars without electricity of a four-storey low-income housing building, in the company of other inhabitants remained there too.
“In the beginning, there were mostly young soldiers. Then, two weeks later, there were others. Older, they were over 40 years old. They were brutal. They mistreated everyone. And that’s where the massacres started, ”she adds, before pausing, pensive, with dark eyes. According to Olena, these older men “were very well equipped, they wore black and dark green uniforms”, not Russian regular army uniforms. She identifies them as agents of the FSB, the Russian security services.