Burying the bodies of people killed in Oleshky has been restricted by Russian occupation authorities, residents say. This has made counting the dead even harder.
They “do not allow us to bury the dead if they were killed by a drone, stepped on a landmine or were killed in any other way”, said Tetiana.
Russia’s occupation authorities demand those deaths are confirmed by post mortem examination carried out by a Russian doctor, the BBC has been told. That is not possible in Oleshky.
Only those who die of natural causes could be buried, she added, and as a result, “some bodies have been on the streets since December”.
Bodies are “either getting piled” up in the local hospital morgue, “where there’s been no power since winter”, says volunteer Ksenia Arkhipova, or “stray dogs eat them”.
That detail has been verified by the BBC based on numerous pictures obtained from residents. They are all too graphic to publish.
“This is a tool of psychological pressure,” says Ester Vrataryova, the co-founder of charity Humanity, which helps people in Oleshky and the wider Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
“If you try to bury a dead body, you’ll become the next one,” she says.
