1
There is silence on every street. Chickens scream and goats bleat elsewhere. Sometimes dogs bark. The benches near the houses are mostly empty. Those who went out to chat with their neighbours look grimly at strangers with cameras. They refuse to talk about how the village lived this year. Only one of the women quietly says: "Can we call it a village now? It is destroyed."
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
“Previously, companies always gathered. The young ones will sit separately, and the old ones sit in the gazebo, so that no one disturbs anyone,” a saleswoman in a local shop Lilia Dontsova willingly tells. Unlike the one where the missile hit, this one stands inconspicuously on the street — the small one, without a cafe.
Lilia is 22 years old. She has a slight limp — six years ago she lost her leg after being hit by a train, so now she walks with a prosthesis. Her mother Olha Dontsova is the closest friend of the Kozyrs family.
"Mom and Alina were at thick as thieves, but I was with Lisa," says Lilia.
Members of the Kozyr family who died in a missile attack
Alina Kozyr is the wife of Andriy Kozyr, 44 years old. She worked and lived in Poland, and came home the day before the tragedy.
Denys Kozyr is the son of Andriy and Alina. He is 24 years old, a former military man.
Elizaveta Kozyr is the daughter of Andriy and Alina. She is 22 years old. She lived in Poland, came with her mother the day before her fatherʼs reburial.
Mykola and Nina Hryb are Alina Kozyrʼs parents (66 and 64 years old).
Ivan Hryb is the brother of Alina Kozyr.
Halyna Hryb is the wife of Ivan Hryb.
Nina Kozyr is the wife of Denys Kozyr, she would have turned 21 on October 14. She worked at the Kharkiv Humanitarian and Pedagogical Academy, studied there in the fourth year.
Lyudmila Chehodayeva is the mother of Nina Kozyr, 42 years old. She is the head of the local village club, volunteer.
Anatoliy Kozyr is Andriy Kozyrʼs uncle. He is 69 years old, and retired.
Olha Pashchenko is the daughter of Anatoliy Kozyry. She is 34 years old, and works as a housewife.
Ihor Kozyr is Andriy Kozyrʼs cousin. He is 36 years old, and works as a volunteer. He was at the wake with his wife, Ksenia, who survived.
Ivan Kozyr is the son of Ihor Kozyr and Ksenia. He is 8 years old, and studied in the 2nd grade.
Yeva Yaremenko is the sister of Andriy Kozyryʼs father-in-law. She is a 70 years old.
Hanna Malikova (she is a 35 years old) and Ivan Yaremenko (he is a 34 years old), are the children of Eva Yaremenko. Ivan is a former member of the anti-terrorist operation [ATO].
Maksym Sirokurov is Andriy Kozyrʼs 3rd-cousin nephew. He is 25 years old.
Alina Sirokurova is Maksymʼs wife, 23 years old. Two of their children remained orphans.
On the morning of October 5, before the shelling, Olhaʼs brother Oleksiy died in the Dontsovs family. Because of this, she did not go to the cafe, so she survived. Andriy Kozyrʼs wife Alina promised to come to Olha after saying goodbye to her husband. It was necessary to help prepare for Oleksiyʼs wake — cook dinner and move the tables to the yard.
The Dontsovʼs and Kozyrʼs houses are next door. The House of Kozyrs is closed. Bunches of ripe red grapes hang from the fence, which have already withered a little — there is no one to pick them. Shortly before the full-scale war, Kozyrs went to work in Poland. They invested money in their house. Alina and Andriy were thinking of staying in Poland, but the children wanted to return home.
The war changed everything. Hroza was occupied on February 24, the men returned to Ukraine and mobilized. Andriy died in March 2022 near Popasna. Denys resigned from the army in the spring of 2023. Even at the beginning of the great war, he married a local girl Nina. And shortly before the tragedy, the newlyweds finally did a photo session, they planned to play the wedding for real, not in a hurry. Denys and Nina lived in their parentsʼ house. Mother and sister worked in Poland. They rarely came to their native village, the last time was on October 4, 2023, the day before Andriyʼs reburial.
On the left is the grave of Nina Kozyr, on the right is her husband Denys, son of Andriy Kozyr. In the photo, Nina is in a wedding dress — shortly before the tragedy, Denys and Nina had a wedding photo shoot.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
"Now there is no one to meet. There were few young people before, but now there are none left at all. Old people sit at home. What should they talk about? That life will never be the same again?” continues Lilia.
The main gathering place of the villagers used to always be the cafe-shop, where the missile hit. Even in the correspondence of the Mamons brothers with their fellow villagers, whose names the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) does not name, several people wrote: "Sorry about ʼSuputnykʼ. We spent all our youth there." During the occupation, the owner closed the cafe, but the Kozyrs agreed that it would be opened for the wake.
"Iskander" did not leave a single brick from "Suputnyk". Only the paramedic station next to it partially survived. It is the same as a year ago — the walls are crumbling, there is a hole in the roof. Everything else was cleaned and repaired. The childrenʼs playground, battered by debris, was painted, where the bodies lay and the charred walls of the building stood, now a memorial to the victims.
Childrenʼs playground near the store after a rocket hit. In the foreground is the car of Mykola Hryb, father-in-law of Denys Kozyr. He also died in the cafe. The playground a year after the tragedy.
Яків Ляшенко / «Бабель»; Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
On the side is a wagon-shop, which was opened by the owner of "Suputnyk" Anatoliy Tverdokhlebov. Both the memorial and the new store appeared recently — about a month and a half ago.
“The village needs a shop. The one [where Lilia Dontsova works] has no schedule, so you donʼt know if it works, or if it doesnʼt. And we have a schedule from 7 am to 7 pm. So he [Anatoliy Tverdokhlebov] wanted to open the store again,” says saleswoman Natalia.
Lilia Dontsova in the store.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
Natalia also worked as a saleswoman in "Suputnyk". On the 5th of October, it was her shift. While people gathered for the wake, she closed the shop for lunch. But she remained in the building — there was to be an audit in a day, so she counted the goods.
“And I donʼt know anything further. I was just turned off at the moment. Then I came to my senses and could not understand what had happened. I wanted to get out, but I was crushed [by concrete slabs]. I began to shout: "Help!". A local boy ran up and started pulling, but he canʼt, cause the plate is heavy. And then the State Emergency Service arrived. Firstly I was taken to a checkpoint, then the soldiers took me to Shevchenkove,” recalls Natalia.
Natalia speaks calmly, but tears are already welling up in her eyes. I cautiously ask her how she can now work in a new store at the same place.
"Well, itʼs creepy. As soon as you start to remember [the missile strike], you will drown [in memories]. Andriy Kozyr and I used to work in another store, which is now a club. And I know his whole family very well. You go to the cemetery — and everyone is lying there, and everyone is familiar, and there are three or four people each,” she sighs and talk to me.
The store opened by the owner of "Suputnyk". Memorial to the victims of the missile attack at the site of "Suputnyk".
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
“People have changed. They became more closed off, and kind of angry with each other. It would seem that trouble should have united us. And it turned out the other way around,” the woman thinks for a while and continues.
Cemetery in Hroza. The Ukrainian flag flies over the grave of Ivan Yaremenko, a former soldier and friend of Andriy Kozyr. He also died from a missile attack.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
2
Andriy Kozyrʼs aunt Valentyna does not go to the new store.
“He [the shop owner Anatoliy Tverdokhlebov] says that he did open not on the same place where the bodies were lying. But there were bodies everywhere! Both behind the fence and in front of it — there was no place with no bodies. My Ihor and Olya were also lying there. I recognized Olya right away, but there was only a half of Ihorʼs body. The fence was intact, he [shop owner Anatoliy Tverdokhlebov] removed it to the brick. He just had to open a store,” Valentyna is indignant.
I remind you that Tverdokhlebovʼs relatives died — almost the entire Panteleevs family. Their graves in the cemetery in the first row — Iryna, the sister of the owner of the cafe that was hit by "Iskander", her husband Valerii, daughter Olha and son-in-law Anatoliy.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
Deceased members of Valentyna Kozyrʼs family, from left to right: Ihor Kozyr, Olha Pashchenkova, Anatoliy Kozyr, Ivan Kozyr.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
"They all died. And his niece. And the one who communicated with Mamons also died. But they were always pro-Russian. When I was leaving [from the occupation], their grandfather asked me so rudely: ʼSo, are you going to Banderovite?ʼ. And mine [relatives], on the contrary, have always been pro-Ukrainian,” Valentyna agrees.
Valentyna Kozyr does not like the memorial that was opened at the scene of the tragedy. He seems soulless to her. As Valentyna says, the names are engraved too low — if you put flowers, they are not visible. The toy she brought to the memorial was asked to be removed by fellow villagers. It feels that their relationship with Valentyna is strained. She is friends with almost no one — except for her comadre Halyna, who lives across the house. She says that there is no one to communicate with, because everyone has died. Valentyna buried her husband Anatoliy, children Olya and Ihor and eight-year-old grandson Vanya. Only Olyaʼs son, 15-year-old Vlad, and Ihorʼs wife Ksenia, who is currently undergoing rehabilitation abroad, survived.
“They [the villagers] say that she is like paved in gold and already spent all the money [compensation for her grandson Vlad due to the death of his parents] on herself. And Vanya Yaremenko brought this to me [pointed on a pendant]. He and [daughter] Olya are classmates, they went to kindergarten together. Olya constantly defended him. He brought her the same earrings, but I see that there is only one at home — Olya must have lost the another one,” Valentyna shows the pendant on her neck — a small coat of arms of Ukraine.
Valentyna is not yet sixty. There are only three rooms in her house. Olyaʼs daughter lived with the biggest one. There are many photos in the sideboard behind the glass — Olya with her ex-husband, Olya with her [still young] son Vlad, Olya in a camouflage [clothing]. The next one is a photo of her brother Ihor in military uniform — he was a sergeant in the army.
In the middle of the room on the table is a row of four large photographs — of Anatoliy Kozyr, Olya, Vanya and Ihor. The same photos are on their graves. There are also a lot of Olyaʼs letters on the table. She was involved in sports, and shortly before the tragedy, she started working for an international humanitarian organization in Shevchenkove.
Childrenʼs photos of the Kozyr family. In the foreground is Ihor Kozyr after demobilization from the army. Valentyna Kozyr points to the brothers Dmytro and Oleksandr Mamon — in childhood they were friends with her children.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
“Olya got married, but quickly divorced. Vlad was younger than ten months. No one in the village ever called her Pashchenkova. They called her Olya Kozyr. Everyone loved her, and Ihor too. I always said that my children were golden. And Tolik was golden for me. I am his 3rd wife, but he also loved his children very much, and they loved him,” says Valentyna Kozyr.
In June 2022, Valentyna and her grandson Vlad decided to go to Volyn to visit her sister. Olya and Ihorʼs children stayed in Hroza. When the village was liberated in September 2022, Ihor started volunteering. Valentyna and Vlad stayed in Volyn, where the boy went to school.
"While there was an occupation, I was in constant communication with Alina [Kozyr], because there was no contact with Olya. She told me that Denys and Nina signed. We arrived a month after we were de-occupied, and I said ʼOlya, letʼs leave,ʼ but she didnʼt want to. On the contrary, she told Vlad that he should not come back and asked him to stay there," recalls Valentyna.
On Tuesday, October 4, 2023, Vlad received a parcel from his mother — a system unit for a computer, a postcard with the inscription "Sonny, I love you" and a chocolate bar. The next day, Valentyna and her grandson were having lunch in a cafe when Vlad saw on the news that a missile had hit Hroza.
“I knew there would be a wake. But the cafe [earlier] was closed, so I thought they would just sit at home and thatʼs all. But Olyaʼs colleague is calling me.
“Valya [Valentyna], no one left [at your home]," says the colleague.
"How is it possible? What about Ihor? He had to volunteer," I asked.
"There is no one here. Neither Ihor, nor Oksana, nor Vanya," she answers and I realized that all of them are there.
Valentyna Kozyr in her house. On the table are photos of those who died during the attack.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
Valentyna arrived in the village the next day, but without Vlad. She identified the bodies of Olha and Anatoliy, and a little later — Ihor. On October 10, she took the bodies from the morgue, but decided not to bury them immediately, but to bring them home first. Kozyrs was buried on October 11.
"Granny, I cried so much. I thought my mother was sick or cold. And then you said that you brought [the bodies], and they are at home. I immediately calmed down then," said Vlad.
The boy lives in Volyn with Valentynaʼs sister. Valentyna is his guardian, as Vlad himself decided — he did not want to stay with his biological father. Valentyna looks after the Kozyrs house in Hroza. She comes there to clean and keep things organised. She complains that the burials are widely scattered from each other — it is inconvenient. Valentyna always puts a toy on Vanyaʼs grave. And she ordered flowers for the anniversary of the tragedy. This time, chrysanthemums will be placed instead of roses. She says that roses wither too quickly.
3
At the turn to the village, there is a [transport] stop marked with a large poster. Volodymyr Mamon is depicted on one side, and the remains of those killed on October 5 — on the other. The capital letters seem to shout: "Killers have a name."
Poster at the stop at the entrance to Hroza. In the photo is Volodymyr Mamon, a resident of Hroza, who collaborated with the Russians and fled to Russia after the deoccupation of the village. The investigation suspects that he was the one who aimed the missile at the store.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
In recent years, 30 yaers old Volodymyr Mamon lived in [and for] two villages — Hroza and neighboring Chkalovske. Since 2019, he has been working as a policeman in the convoy service, delivering arrested persons to court and prison. His brothers Dmytro and Oleksandr Mamons worked as policemen in Kupyansk. Valentyna Kozyr has preserved old childhood photographs of Dmytro and Oleksandr Mamons. They are still young here, no older than 7 years.
"The three of them are Vova Mamon (from another marriage of their father Serhiy), but Dima and Sasha are blood relatives. Vova is not in the photo here, he was always separate, cause he is the oldest. Sasha and Dima were especially friends with the Hrybs, because they were neighbors. They constantly gathered for parties," says Valentyna.
Their father Serhiy Mamon did not leave the village. The villagers say that when the Russians entered Hroza, he greeted them almost with flowers.
"They are all scumbags. As soon as the katsaps entered, everything was handed over to them — all the weapons they had. They were in the police force in Kupyansk. And then they immediately returned to the village, because their father told them to. And they came back. They walked here with the katsaps together. Vova liked one-day-prisoners for most. People were detained for 45 days — guess what they did with these people,” says Serhiy, who lives at the other end of Hroza, far from the cemetery and the store. He fixes an old motorcycle and occasionally lights a cigarette with his grease-blackened hands.
Serhiy, a resident of Hroza.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
According to the investigation, Volodymyr Mamon immediately got a job in the occupation administration. He received a "Niva" with the marking "Z" from the Russians, drove it around the villages, patrolled the territory and campaigned to go over to the side of the Russians. He is also suspected of passing data on local anti-terrorist operation [ATO] veterans and hunters to the Russians and seizing their weapons. Dmytro and Oleksandr worked in the occupation police. And shortly before the release of Hroza, the entire Mamons family fled to Russia.
"The katsaps were leaving in columns, running away, because ours were already getting close. Even then, I told [to Serhiy Mamon] that thatʼs it, their time is over. I could still talk to him sometimes, scold him. But not with Vova. I donʼt know what he was missing [in his life]. You have money, so keep living your life," says Serhiy.
“They thought that thatʼs it — Russia is [here] for a long time. And they had to run away quickly. But they rarely visited [the occupied Hroza]. In particular, they did not have time to do dirt on,” says Valentyna Kozyr.
Serhiy, a resident of Hroza.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
The case against Volodymyr Mamon was initiated in July 2022, when Hroza was occupied. He was accused of collaborationism. In August 2023, the middle brother Oleksandr Mamon was accused of treason and collaborationism. Dmytro was not officially suspected of anything before the missile attack on Hroza. Now he is also accused of treason. The cases against the three brothers are considered by three different courts: in Poltava — against Volodymyr, in Chernihiv — against Oleksandr, and in Kharkiv — against Dmytro. The Security Service Branch (SBU) of the Kharkiv region did not respond to Babelʼs inquiry about the case of Dmytro Mamon.
But there is no unanimous opinion in Hroza about the Mamons.
"Not everyone believes [in that Mamons adjusted the missile]. As we can say, well, how could they [do this], here are their friends, relatives and compadres. But God knows how they could. There is the human factor. We never know what is in peopleʼs heads...," says Natalia, a saleswoman of “Suputnyk”.
Valentyna Kozyr is more categorical about this. She claims that there are still people in the village who continue to communicate with the brothers. For example, those who were friends with the Mamons and did not attend the wake, remained their friends.
4
Before the Great War, approximately 550 people lived in Hroza. After the occupation and the tragedy, not even two hundred remained there. There used to be a large farm in the village, but now only a few have small farms. Serhiy has several tractors and other agricultural equipment in his yard — he takes care of it all while the owners are at war. Serhiy continues to harvest grain from his small field, but he says that the dealers are offering low prices.
The tractor that Serhiy takes care of while his master is at war.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
"They graze right next to the field and immediately buy up all the grain. The system is working, so if I go to sell it myself, I wonʼt deliver it, cause certain people are standing everywhere. So we sell to them [traffickers] twice as cheap," Serhiy complains.
Near the shop where Lilia Dontsova works, her mother Olha is sitting in a gazebo. She holds her granddaughter Ulyanka in her arms. The girl was born shortly before the missile strike. Due to the fact that she was premature, she was in the intensive care unit for some time. But now Ulyanka looks like the happiest child in the world.
Ulyanka, daughter of Lilia Dontsova.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
“Ulyanka, letʼs play patty-cake!” says Olha Dontsova and kisses her granddaughter on the cheek. Ulyanka laughs. She does not leave her grandmother, and her grandmother does not leave her.
"Honey, what can I tell you? I canʼt think about it. Donʼt ask me to. I worked so much with a psychologist [after the death of Kozyrs]. My arms and legs were all twisted. I donʼt want to talk [about it]. They [the Kozyrs family] just left for me. They left for earnings,” says Olha when I ask her about life after the tragedy.
Olha is sitting next to her son-in-law and her youngest daughter — she is rocking a bassinet. She recently gave birth to a girl, and she was named Yeva.
"I really miss them. Both Alina and Olya. If you would know how much I want to come and talk to them. I downloaded Viber to my computer, and old messages popped up there. And a voice from Alina “Dontsova, I can not catch you! By which messenger should I call you?" says Olha suddenly.
“I donʼt even go to the shop. And to the memorial. When it was placed, the boys saw a human tooth. Have all the bodies been found? It was impossible. Everything is still there, all human ashes are still there,” Olha hands Ulyanka to Lilia and continues.
Lilia Dontsova together with Ulyanka .
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»
Olha is going to go cook dinner. I apologize for sting her to the quick, but she is not offended.
"I only have my children and grandchildren left. And there is nothing else," says Olha Dontsova.
Her daughter Lilia even smiles:
“We will improve the demographic situation in Hroza.”
Cemetery in Hroza.
Heorhiy Ivanchenko / «Babel»