HAVRONSHCHYNA, Ukraine – Driving along inconspicuous fields in the countryside near Kyiv, it is easy to miss a small family car abandoned by the roadside.
But the vehicle – littered with bullet holes, strewn with baby clothes and sprinkled with human remains – is a microcosm of the horror that has befallen Ukraine.
This is also an example of the heroism that allowed him to endure.
“It was chaos. I couldn’t feel anything. I was numb. Some people were trying to hide in my house. I was trying to pick up injured people, “said Yuri Patsan, a 42-year-old mechanic, describing the March 15 incident, which ended with a car blockade in front of his house at the end of this small village of about 1,000 people about 30 miles away. west of the capital Kyiv.
The vehicle is now another piece of the giant puzzle for investigators gathering evidence of alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces, an accusation they deny. Moscow has also repeatedly denied targeting Ukrainian civilians.
Patsan said Russian troops occupying Havron had agreed to allow civilians to leave in a convoy.
He said he and his wife had packed their cars and were ready to join the end of the convoy of vehicles as she passed.
“They were trying to escape. Men, women and children. “And Russian cars came up behind them and started firing,” he said.
He added that none of the vehicles were moving chaotically and had no idea why the Russians had opened fire.
“People were running and shooting at them. I saw an old man shot. I ran to my house. “Then I came back slowly and saw the bodies,” Patsan said.
He added that when he approached the Volkswagen hatchback in front of his home, he could see a piece of white cloth attached to it to mark it as a civilian vehicle.
A children’s bottle was left in the back of a wrecked car left behind in fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the Havron region. (Mo Abbas / NBC News)
He could also see a woman leaning over a small child trying to protect him in the back seat, and an older woman and teenager in the car, he said. They were all dead.
A male driver lost an eye, fingers and a lot of blood and was barely alive, he said, adding that he had taken him out of the car and taken him home.
The story continues
As Russian patrols, armed, patrolled the area near his home, Patsan said he was waiting for an opportunity to retrieve the bodies from the car and bury them in a shallow grave in his backyard.
He made an improvised cross, he said. “It’s a tradition. “Everyone deserves respect,” he added.
For the next two weeks, Patsan said he and his wife cared for the man, Alexander, as much as they could, gathering the surrounding village for help. He identifies the person only by his own name out of concern for his personal life and safety.
Other villagers brought what medicine and food they had, and Patsan said he called medics on the phone for advice on how to treat his patient.
“I treated him like a brother. Hugging him all the time, supporting him, “he said.
Alexander doesn’t talk much about the incident, Patsan said. But he said he learned that the teenager in the car was Alexander’s son and that the mother and child were not related to him.
The older woman was not related to anyone else in the car and the young child was too disfigured to know his gender, he added.
NBC News saw that the vehicle was still outside Patsan’s house on April 14, just over a month after the attack. A baby bottle and baby shoes were still in the car, as well as a notebook with a shopping list for basic products such as milk, eggs and butter.
Police pasted the numbers next to the bullet holes in the car as part of their investigation and the bodies were removed from the shallow grave.
Alexander was taken to hospital and Patsan said he was improving.
“God may have guided me. It was a miracle he survived, “Patsan said.
There are still faint stains of blood on the carpet and pillow where Alexander was treated.
Patsan said he was fine, but still needed time to process what had happened. No matter how much he washes or ventilates his house, he still catches the smell of gunshots and blood, he said.
“I can still feel it. The whole time. I can smell it, ”he said before picking up and petting a kitten, the only passenger in the ill-fated car, which had come out unharmed and had since been adopted.
A damaged car was left by the road in the town of Havron. (Mo Abbas / NBC News)
The car in front of his house is just one of many found in the suburbs around Kyiv after the withdrawal of Russian forces this month.
A short drive away is what locals call a “car cemetery” where piles of twisted and fired civilian and military vehicles are collected.
Every civilian car seems to have a tragic story. Some contain textbooks and children’s clothing. Other walkers, medicines and beds. One contained a dead domestic cat and the other a human jawbone.
Most had white flags attached to them.
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