The Russians will hand over the bodies of the dead teenagers Tigran Ohannisyan and Nikita Khanganov to their relatives, they will be able to bury them in Berdyansk, but Russia has not yet officially confirmed the death of the children to the Office of the Ombudsman.
The representative of the authorized person in the system of security and defense bodies Oleksandr Kononenko informed "Babel" about this.
He said that the Ombudsmanʼs Office learned about the boys for the first time when they were witnesses in the railway sabotage case.
"They were taken to Rostov, they were examined there (including a psychological one), and at the end of May their status was changed and charges were brought against them. But we were not officially informed about this," Kononenko noted.
According to "Babel", both boys were charged with allegedly knocking down a support on the railway track, which could block the railway connection with the city.
The Ombudsmanʼs office tried to return the children to Ukraine. "We have been negotiating to bring these two boys back by June 1, Childrenʼs Day. But the Russians didnʼt give them away," Kononenko said.
According to him, after information about the death of the boys appeared in the media, the Office of the Ombudsman sent a letter to the Russian Ombudsman Tetiana Moskalkova and asked her to deny or confirm the information. "We still havenʼt received an answer," Kononenko stated.
He also clarified that the information that the Office of the Ombudsman is trying to return the childrenʼs bodies to the controlled territory is not true, because the boysʼ relatives live in Berdyansk and want to bury the children there.
- Human rights defenders reported the day before that in Berdyansk teenagers Tigran Ohannisyan and Nikita Khanganov were shot dead by Russian snipers. The occupation police did not try to neutralize them in any other way to save their lives, but instead killed them immediately. Before that, the occupiers put pressure on the teenagers for half a year, searched them, and Ohannisyan was kidnapped and detained by the local police.
- On June 15, 2023, the European Parliament adopted a resolution demanding an end to the persecution of Ukrainian teenagers Tigran Ohannisyan and Nikita Khanganov from occupied Berdyansk and to allow them to leave the territory controlled by Ukraine.
- Ukrainian law enforcement officers initiated criminal proceedings for the murder of children. "Media Initiative for Human Rights" is conducting its own investigation.