Russians forces shot and murdered children’s fiction writer Volodymyr Vakulenko, law enforcement says
Volodymyr Vakulenko (Photo:Iryna Tsilyk / Facebook)
Russian invaders shot and killed children’s fiction writer and poet Volodymyr Vakulenko, Serhiy Bolvinov, head of the investigative department of the local police in Kharkiv Oblast, said on Facebook on Nov. 29.
“The DNA profile check was completed and it was confirmed that deceased No. 319 at the Izyum cemetery is Volodymyr Vakulenko,” he wrote.
“Two bullets from a Makarov gun were found in the body.”
Law enforcers first opened up a case looking into Vakulenko whereabouts in April 2022, when he was suspected of being illegally detained by the Russian occupiers in Izyum District, Bolvinov said.
In October, Vakulenko father contacted the police and reported that his son was buried at the Izyum cemetery.
According to Vakulenko’s father, on March 23, five people came to their house — likely members of the Donbas puppet authority militias — and ransacked it. Vakulenko was kidnapped, interrogated, beaten, and then released.
“The next day, two unidentified people came to their house in a car marked with a Z and took Volodymyr Vakulenko away by force,” Bolvinov said.
“Since then, no one had seen him alive.”
Witnesses who buried Ukrainians at the Izyum cemetery said that on May 12, Russian occupiers approached them and told them to bury a man whose body was located near the village of Kapitolivka in the Izyum district. There were bullet wounds on the body, and the writer’s documents were found to have gunshot holes in them.
“The body was on the street for more than a month,” Bolvinov said, stating that the police are working to identify the culprits behind the writer’s murder.
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