Two childhood friends lived in several houses next to each other on Mir Street, a quiet road hidden behind a small church in a rural village near Kyiv until the war in Russia.
The bodies of Pavel Kholodenko and Viktor Balay, both 28, were found in early April and buried in a shallow grave in the woods.
The two young men, who went to kindergarten together, went to school together and briefly served in the Ukrainian army together, were brutally tortured and killed together by Russian soldiers, their grieving mothers said.
Their previous military service is probably the reason they were executed.
Grieving over the loss, the mothers told Sky News that their boys had planned to volunteer for the invasion before suddenly losing contact with the couple around the time Russian tanks invaded the village of Zdvizhivka on February 25.
It was only after Russian forces finally withdrew more than a month later that the horror of what happened to lifelong friends emerged.
“They were tortured,” said Tatiana Kholodenko, 48, in tears at the thought.
“It was such a horrible torture that not a single part of the body escaped – fingers, hands, feet … It’s hard to say, but I’ll say it: they killed him (Paul) with a shot to the mouth. From a rifle – his brain was in the hood of his coat. It’s hard. It’s very difficult. “
She spoke in front of her house, the family’s second home with another property in the nearby town.
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Image: Tatiana Kholodenko says her son was tortured by Russian forces Image: Pavel told his mother that he would return before he went to fight
Down the road is Victor’s house.
He lives there with his mother Olena Balay, 49, and his grandmother Olga Dovhoshap, 78.
They are broken without him.
“He was tortured,” said the mother, who clung to a portrait of her only child in a military uniform.
“No body parts were spared. My son did not live to see his 29th birthday. The bastards killed him. The Nazis tortured him. For what? What have you done? It’s not his fault, he’s just a boy. My son is dead. My little boy is gone. My baby is gone. “
Image: Victor lived with his mother Olena Balay, right, and grandmother, Olga Dovhoshap, left
Both men were described as kind and considerate.
They have served together in the Ukrainian armed forces, fighting Moscow-backed separatists in the east of the country since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The two friends eventually decide to return to civilian life, with Pavel working as a taxi driver and Victor becoming a builder.
When Russia invaded, they both signaled to their mothers that they wanted to fight.
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“His last words were: Mom, I love you, but I have to go. I have to defend Ukraine. Mom, I love you,” said Victor’s mother, her voice cracking, her eyes wet with tears, her head bowed.
Paul’s mother described the last time she saw her son.
He said, “I’ll be back,” she recalled.
“He’s a fighter, a former fighter. We didn’t see him after that. He left our house and said, ‘Mom, I’m going for a walk and then I’m coming back.’
He never did.
Image: Paul is laid to rest near the street of peace Image: Paul and Victor grew up on the street of peace in a rural village outside Kyiv
Neither family is sure what happened next or how the two young men were eventually captured.
They also do not know exactly when the couple died. Their bodies were found on April 3, but the brutal remains showed signs of being in the ground for some time.
“We found them on Sunday, identified them and buried them on Tuesday,” said Pavel’s mother. “I didn’t know night by day during that time – my son ми my son.”
They are laid to rest in two different cemeteries in the village.
The mothers said they wanted justice as Ukrainian investigators worked to build a case against Russia for thousands of war crimes.
“I want revenge – the Russian soldiers to follow in my son’s footsteps… But we can’t say that, can we, because then we will be as bad as them,” said Paul’s mother.
“We can’t act like them. But I want them punished.”
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