"Ukraine flows with blood": how the village released from the occupiers is preparing for a long war - WSJ

In the early days of the Great War, they left Kiev to the villages because they thought it would be safer. However, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation occupied the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital and began to terrorize the population. The invaders fired cars of civilians, tortured and executed. Dozens of people were killed as a result of actions. The newspaper writes that the head of the village of Olga Suhenko, her husband and son were killed by the Russian military after torture.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Suhenko a medal posthumously, and Motyzhyn's main street now bears her name. The material states that a few weeks after the escape of the Russian invaders from the Kyiv region, the villagers gathered near the church and unanimously voted for the eviction of the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as for the invitation of a new priest from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

According to journalists, now the local library sends more than 10,000 books in Russian - most of its collection. The school now has an underground hopper with a stove, benches and games so that children can hide and continue their training when siren of air anxiety. It is noted that there are still small holes from Schrapnel inside the local church.

The room is a memorial plaque with the names of 15 people who died in the motifs during the occupation, as a 66-year-old local resident Mykola Litvinenko, whose daughter Yaroslav said, told the Russians, a quiet life continues in the village. However, as journalists noted, there are changes. Yes, residents rarely visit the pine forest, where the bodies of the Suhenko family were found, although it was previously a picnics and mushroom collection.

In addition, one rural school wing was still not repaired after shelling. Several premises were affected by the fire and not used. At the entrance to the educational institution, an exposition dedicated to soldiers from Motyzhyn, with about 80 people, is established. Residents regularly raise money and grocery parcels to send to the front. The school principal Valery Moskalenko stated that in the first months after the occupation, the children ran or hid under the desks, hearing any loud sound.

Now they have recovered from the stress experienced. According to Ivan Rudyak, a local Ukrainian military, who was a commander of Motyzhyn after his liberation, can still not force himself to take his children to the park. "Some feel fear," he said. According to journalists, although the focus is on recovery, the past is always nearby. In December 2023, local authorities found the bodies of three other civilians, probably killed by the Russians.

The deputy chairman of the Kyiv Regional Council Tatiana Semenova stated that her girlfriend Olga Suhenko was still inspired by her dead. She refused to leave the village to escape from the occupiers. "Putin is suffocated by Ukraine, he cannot swallow it, but Ukraine flows blood," Semenova said. We will remind, on March 17 it was reported that Buchanan executioners continue to fight, rest and even adopt Ukrainian children.