Ukraine’s safety companies have accused Mamon and his youthful brother, Dmytro, who each fled to Russia in 2022, of coordinating a Russian missile strike final October on a restaurant internet hosting a funeral reception in Hroza, their hometown, killing 59 — about one-fifth of the inhabitants.
Final week, Ukrainian authorities additionally charged the youthful Mamon brother with treason for voluntarily working for Russian forces after they occupied Hroza and the encompassing space.
Two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the case illustrates the various obstacles Ukrainian officers face in making an attempt to prosecute alleged traitors and search justice for obvious battle crimes, significantly in front-line villages the place loyalties are sometimes combined and residents stay beneath ongoing threat of Russian reoccupation.
It additionally demonstrates the tough activity of rebuilding a traumatized neighborhood the place the reality is determined by whom you ask.
With the Mamon brothers now in Russia, it’s unlikely both will face trial. Even naming them because the alleged informants behind the strike triggered a break up in Hroza, bringing closure to some and discomfort to others. It has additionally triggered concern amongst some residents that if Russian forces do return, so may the brothers — talking out towards them now may have a price later.
In Hroza, the place a number of residents mentioned half the inhabitants as soon as harbored pro-Russian views, the October assault reopened wounds and suspicions that had festered throughout months of occupation in early 2022.
“The village is split,” mentioned Lyuba Pletinka, 61, who lives throughout from the strike website.
In interviews, residents described how family members and associates who as soon as shared lives now suspect one another of Russian sympathies or ongoing collaboration. Locals keep away from gathering in crowds. Jealousies have emerged over help distribution. And accusations have surfaced that with many village leaders killed within the strike, pro-Russian residents have now taken cost.
Some in Hroza are reluctant to consider that the Mamon brothers had been behind the strike. Others really feel vindicated now that males they reviled for working with the Russians throughout occupation have been formally outed as traitors.
Rumors are nonetheless whispered that possibly it was another person, or {that a} GPS had been positioned on a trash can on the cafe to assist direct the strike, or that Russians launched the missile as a result of they noticed too many cellphones energetic in a single place.
Ukraine’s state safety service, the SBU, mentioned the assault was premeditated by the brothers, who maintained contact with their former neighbors on messaging apps and discovered in regards to the funeral for Andriy Kozyr, a soldier who was killed firstly of the battle and was being reburied at residence. They then allegedly shared coordinates with Russian forces, who focused the cafe the place the funeral reception was being held with an Iskander missile, killing most of Kozyr’s associates and family members. Russia later falsely claimed that the strike focused a gathering of high-profile troops.
“The 2 brothers positively labored for Russia. They tortured some folks right here,” mentioned Pletinka. “I’m one hundred pc positive” they had been behind the strike, she mentioned. She additionally believes they’re linked to the jailing of her son, a Ukrainian soldier who was held as a prisoner of battle throughout occupation.
Others aren’t so sure.
“I knew the brothers labored for the Russians,” mentioned Lyuba Savchenko, 64, whose sister, cousins and associates had been killed within the strike. However, she added, “I’m not the one responsible anybody.”
“In my head I do notice they could have been those who did it, however my coronary heart doesn’t need to consider it,” mentioned Valeriy Kozyr, 62, whose daughter, Olha, and son-in-law, Anatoly Pantaleev, had been killed alongside Anatoly’s mother and father, Valeriy and Iryna, within the strike. (Regardless of sharing a final title, Valeriy shouldn’t be an in depth relative of Andriy Kozyr, the soldier whose funeral was focused.)
“In the event that they did it, they had been pleasant to the folks they killed,” Valeriy mentioned. “They regarded of their eyes and put a knife of their again.”
Valeriy and his spouse, Lyuba, at the moment are caring for 3 of their orphaned grandchildren: Nastya, 10, Dima, 15, and Daryna, 17. They’re additionally serving to coordinate humanitarian help handouts — a activity as soon as carried out by neighbors who died within the strike.
However their household’s tragedy has not protected them from suspicions over their very own loyalties. A number of neighbors mentioned that Russia supporters had been amongst these killed within the assault and that Valeriy and Lyuba had aided Russian troops throughout occupation.
When Ukrainian forces superior on then-occupied Hroza in September 2022, Valeriy and Lyuba had been among the many residents who fled to the opposite facet — driving north over the Russian border. In a prolonged interview with The Washington Put up, neither initially disclosed that they’d fled to Russia or that they’ve a fourth, grownup grandson who additionally evacuated to Russia in 2022 however has not returned.
In Hroza, such transgressions at the moment are sufficient to gas critical mistrust — even towards those that misplaced family members at Russia’s hand.
Some neighbors steered the couple is now overlaying up their ties to Russia and to their grandson — claims that Valeriy vehemently denied. He mentioned he had already been interviewed by SBU brokers and cleared of any wrongdoing. When he briefly traveled to Russia, he mentioned, he was solely fascinated with fleeing the entrance line. He didn’t point out his grandson in Russia to visiting journalists, he mentioned, as a result of he didn’t need to “overshadow the tragedy my youngsters suffered.”
“Even in pleasant communities, everybody will speculate and really feel like they’re Sherlock Holmes,” he mentioned.
Valentina Kozyr, who additionally lives within the village and is the aunt of the soldier who was being buried the day the strike occurred, stays unconvinced.
“If you happen to’re not accountable for any errors, then why are you working to Russia and hiding?” she requested. “Lots of people within the village are saying, ‘That they had 4 grandchildren, then it turned three.’”
Valentina’s husband, Anatoly; daughter, Olha; and 8-year-old grandson, Ivan, had been all killed within the October strike, together with many different family members. Olha’s son, her 14-year-old grandson, Vlad, now lives together with her. His life, he mentioned, has turn into “boring and unhappy.”
Of their lounge, the place the espresso desk is now a shrine to the lifeless, Vlad sifted by a cabinet holding his mom’s belongings — together with her pockets and broken cellphone, discovered on the strike website.
He mentioned he blames “the people who find themselves collaborators and nonetheless converse to folks in Russia” for her dying.
The household tragedy has sharpened Valentina’s sword towards attainable traitors. If Russian troops come again, she mentioned, she’s going to flee, figuring out that “folks within the village would simply level fingers” at those that helped Ukraine after liberation.
Earlier than the battle, she mentioned, Hroza was “not divided politically.” The Pantaleevs, the in-laws of Valeriy and Lyuba’s daughter, had been her daughter’s godparents.
However quickly after Russian forces took over, she mentioned, “you may inform folks had switched sides.” After the October strike, mistrust worsened. Now, she mentioned, she is “livid that pro-Russians are working the present.”
On a current morning, Valeriy and Lyuba stood locally heart, handing out bins of humanitarian help delivered to the village every month — the one time neighbors now collect.
Throughout the crowd of residents chatting as they waited for his or her bins of cooking oil and sugar, mistrust simmered.
Individuals who supported Russia at the moment are “the primary ones on the humanitarian help” station, Pletinka mentioned.
Grief is now what hyperlinks residents of Hroza to at least one one other.
“Nobody goes within the streets,” mentioned Dima Berezanets, 16, who visited the middle with a sled to pull his haul residence. He lives close to the strike website and misplaced neighbors within the assault. “Perhaps persons are simply scared and traumatized by the expertise.”
“The individuals who had been the guts of the neighborhood had been killed,” Valeriy mentioned.
Like their grandchildren, Lyuba added, “the city is now an orphan.”