In the Eastern Ukrainian town of Slavyansk the Pentecostal community commemorated one year since the abduction, torture and murder in cold blood of four of their men by rebels of the pro-Russian self proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk (DNR). Exactly one year later, none of the perpetrators have been caught.
On the 8 June 2014 some eight gunmen in camouflage waited for the congregation to come out of the Church of the Transfiguration, where they just had their Pentecost celebration. Four men, among whom were two deacons, were taken to their cars, forced to drive off with the rebels, never to return again. They were shot the following night.
Mass grave
‘Of course we were scared,’ remembers Natalja (42) the widow of the slain deacon Viktor Bradarsky ‘ but what would they do to them? They hadn’t done anything wrong.’ Only after 35 agonising days of uncertainty she learned that her husband’s body was found in a mass grave, together with the other three and a couple of rebels. ‘When they handed over his wedding ring, I knew it was true’, Natalya whispers.
