The small town of Hostomel, close to Kyiv, took centre stage in early 2022 during the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Countless war crimes committed by the Russian army against the residents of Hostomel are currently under investigation and part of court proceedings. One such investigation was initiated by Lazer Taras, a local documentary filmmaker who told journalists his story in the very street where Russian soldiers killed his neighbours.
leg Ivanov was a neighbour known and loved by everyone. He looked after the houseplants and pets of those who, like Lazer Taras, fled to safer places until the situation calmed down. Things didn‘t calm down.
On March 4th, 2022, Ivanov was killed by Russian soldiers in front of his house. A few metres away, at the edge of a small forest running through Hostomel, an acquaintance of Ivanov’s managed to bury him despite the flurry of bullets and projectiles.
”I witnessed Russians entering my home, Russians starting to kill people on this road in front of us and screaming at my neighbours, forcing them out of their houses,” Taras stated, describing the events that led to his passionate desire to collect evidence about what happened in his neighbourhood and to seek justice.
Right before the Russian army arrived, Taras and his family managed to flee to a safer location.
Nonetheless, despite not being there, he watched the arrival of Russian units live on a surveillance camera in his apartment. His camera, along with other cameras along the street, became central evidence against the Russian soldiers.
Teaming up with the police
Around the time Taras and his filmmaker team DENOTAT began reviewing surveillance camera videos along the street, as he was investigating and documenting the events that led to Ivanov‘s murder, he heard that Russian soldiers had committed other crimes as well. Particularly, he heard that they had killed a number of civilians by shooting at moving cars at a crossroads near his house.
He got the main department of national police from Crimea involved, as they were the only ones who could request access to surveillance cameras from a nearby shopping mall.
The investigation became official. The police and prosecution determined that shootings aimed at 10 vehicles had resulted in at least five civilians being killed. The first victim was Russian, the second was German, and the others were Ukrainians, Taras said.
”I had to switch from my neighbour‘s story to this larger story about the Russian troops killing people on the road here. I have already gathered all the necessary information. I have recorded more than 100 hours of interviews, witnesses. I have spoken to everyone, to each victim of the crime that happened here or to the relatives of those killed,” Taras pointed out.
Namely, the testimonies were turned into the documentary film ”The Intersection”. What he discovered jointly with the police is now part of the evidence against the Russian units.
From February 25th to early March, members of a Russian special police unit OMON, from several Russian towns, were present on Taras’ street. When the unit withdrew in March 2022, they left behind numerous documents and items which were used to identify individuals and the specific unit, Detektor reports.
Photo ©️ BIRN
