RICHARD SPENCER | DISPATCH

Partisans who helped to halt Russia’s advance on Kyiv paid with their lives

Ukrainian villagers were hunted down, one by one, by Putin’s vengeful military police, writes Richard Spencer

Alona Ganiuk’s husband Vadym was shot in their cellar after informers pointed him out to the Russian military police
Alona Ganiuk’s husband Vadym was shot in their cellar after informers pointed him out to the Russian military police
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL
Richard Spencer
, Andriivka
The Times

There are many reasons that Russia’s 40-mile column of tanks failed to encircle Kyiv. Anatoliy Kybukevych’s band of partisans is one of them, but they paid a terrible price.

The local home guard chief and his men stayed behind when the Russians seized their village of Andriivka, on the column’s path through the Kyiv countryside. Kybukevych and his men called in Russian positions to Ukrainian forces, aiding a precise and destructive targeting of the column.

The Russian troops’ thrust to Kyiv faltered, then ground to a halt, then they eventually fled north back across the Belarus border, but for the partisans there was no moment of triumph: someone had informed on them.

Anatoliy Kybukevych, mayor of Andriivka, survived the military police manhunt but many of his comrades did not
Anatoliy Kybukevych, mayor of Andriivka, survived the military police manhunt but many of his comrades did not
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL

On March 12 Russia’s black-clad military police came for Vadym Ganiuk, 33, who