Russia plans secret burial for 2 teenagers killed in occupied Berdyansk in 2023
Source: Human Rights Media Initiative
The Russian-led authorities are planning to secretly bury two Ukrainian teenagers, Tigran Ohannisyan and Mykyta Khanganov, who were killed in occupied Berdyansk in 2023. Their to bodies haven’t been returned to their parents according to a report by the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR) citing Tigran’s father, Hryhoriy Ohannisyan.
Potraying the killed teenagers as “terrorists” can allow Berdyansk officials to bury them in unmarked graves, keeping the burial location and time unknown to their parents.
The report says that Russian prosecutors failed to keep their word to release the bodies for burial.
Ohannisyan and Khanganov were killed on June 24, 2023 – Russia’s state media called it the ‘liquidation of two pro-Ukrainian terrorists’. The teenagers were accused of murdering a Russian military officer and a local policeman.
In a haunting video recorded minutes before his death, Tigran is heard saying, “…two [have been killed] for sure… This is death, guys. Goodbye. Glory to Ukraine!”
The details of what led to their death remain unknown.
The boys had been reportedly detained and taken to the police station. Tigran’s mother claimed her son had gone out to meet Mykyta to discuss his friend’s plan for the upcoming birthday party, and she talked to the boy on the phone some 30 minutes before the boys were pronounced killed.
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