Russian security forces killed two teenagers born in 2006 in the occupied Berdyansk, Zaporizhia region, said Dmytro Lubinets, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. According to him, Tigran Hovhannisyan and Nikita Khanganov "came into battle with the occupiers" and managed to kill a Russian serviceman and collaborator-policeman before they died.
According to Lubinets, young men and their families were persecuted by the occupation administration. “Tigran Hovhannisyan was kidnapped from his home. He was severely interrogated and tortured with electric current,” the Ombudsman said.
On May 24, the Investigative Committee of Russia accused Ogannisyan and Khanganov of preparing sabotage on the railway. The European Parliament demanded that the teenagers be handed over to the Ukrainian authorities, but the Russians refused. “For our part, we tried to bring the boys home in different ways,” Lubinets added.
The Ombudsman also posted a video with Hovhannisyan, which is circulating on social networks. The young man says: “Two for sure. All this is death, boys. Farewell. Glory to Ukraine!". A machine gun flashes in the frame. When this video was recorded is unknown.
Volodymyr Rogov, a spokesman for the occupation administration of the Zaporozhye region, confirmed the murder of two teenagers in Berdyansk, writing that "one of them was Tigran Hovhannisyan, who was previously detained for anti-Russian activities." According to Rogov, at about 7 pm on June 24, teenagers whom he calls “pro-Ukrainian terrorists” opened fire from machine guns on the city embankment, after which they were “blocked and destroyed.”
Olga Reshetilova, coordinator of the Ukrainian organization Media Initiative for Human Rights, said that an investigator with an armed escort came for the boys a few days ago, but they managed to escape. According to her, in the Russian version of what happened, many things do not agree, and the boys' parents believe that they were accused of attacking the security forces in order to kill them. Reshetilova also notes that the families of the teenagers have not yet been shown their bodies.