From the rubble inside Kupiansk city corridor, Olena salvages a chair, a display screen: little was left when the Russians withdrew from this northeastern Ukrainian city, fuelling widespread allegations of systematic looting.
On February 27, three days after the warfare started, Kupiansk mayor Genadiy Matsehora agreed to give up his city to the Russian military in alternate for a cessation of hostilities.
And the city — a key rail hub positioned 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the border which had a pre-war inhabitants of 27,000 — remained below Russian occupation till September 10.
The mayor, a member of the Moscow-backed Opposition Platform-For Life celebration, was swiftly denounced by Kyiv for treason and has since fled to Russia.
In Matsehora’s second-floor workplace, a pile of his enterprise playing cards nonetheless lie on the desk, whereas on the ground is a torn poster of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“That is the place the person who the Russian occupiers appointed mayor used to take a seat,” says Olena, an area authority worker who’s sporting earrings emblazoned with the blue-and-gold trident emblem of Ukraine.
It is the primary time this younger mom has been again to her office for the reason that warfare started.
“Those that wished to return again to work needed to wipe their ft on the Ukrainian flag and shout: ‘Thanks Russia, our liberators!’ whereas being filmed,” she mentioned.
Arrested by the Russians for 5 days in March, she refuses to present her surname for worry of a backlash in opposition to her household.
After her arrest, she remained holed up inside her home, then took refuge within the cellar on the peak of the preventing in September.
Solely when the city was liberated did she dare depart the cellar, solely to seek out her home had been turned the other way up.
“They took my microwave, my washer and one thing that I simply can’t clarify: the water tank of my rest room. Not the bathroom itself, simply the water tank,” she instructed AFP.
For the reason that begin of the invasion on February 24, there have been numerous allegations of looting in areas occupied by Russian troops, suggesting a scientific strategy relatively than the odd misdemeanour by a handful of unhealthy apples.
Ukrainian authorities have registered complaints from people and companies who’re hoping that someday they might be compensated within the context of any future warfare reparations paid out by Moscow.
In April, Belarusian investigative media group the Hajun Venture, launched CCTV footage from a parcel supply service within the border city of Mazyr displaying Russian troopers sending dwelling scores of packages.
Every parcel weighed between 50 and 450 kilogrammes (110 to 990 kilos), with greater than two tonnes of products shifted throughout the footage, which lined a interval of greater than three hours.
In Kupiansk, which for months served because the headquarters for Russia’s civil-military administration, many residents took the looting of their stride, relieved to be spared arrest or torture by the hands of their occupiers.
On the police station — which for now’s housed in a short lived construction after its headquarters was flattened within the preventing — all complaints are duly registered.
However at this stage, there are usually not sufficient assets to cope with the rising checklist of complaints, which can should be processed for insurance coverage functions.
“The variety of complaints after the occupation is large,” senior investigator Oleksandr Gitselev instructed AFP.
However he was unable to say what number of complaints had been registered, with folks additionally submitting studies about property injury, albeit with little hope of compensation.
“They primarily stole agricultural equipment, vehicles, grain and family home equipment, amongst different issues,” he defined.
On one farm, “they even took pigs, most likely to eat them,” Gitselev mentioned.
“They went into each home and helped themselves: televisions, screens, computer systems… and even lavatory components or radiators,” he mentioned.
“What for? I’ve no concept. Perhaps they do not have this stuff again dwelling.”
