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"It is impossible to look at Maxim's mother without tears." Exactly a month has passed since the disappearance of the schoolboy in Pushcha

Alyaksandr Lukashenka's abilities could be useful in uncovering the disappearance of 10-year-old Maxim Markhaliuk, a resident of the village of Novy Dvor in the Svisloch district. They have been looking for the boy since September last year, but so far - to no avail. Through our channel, local residents ask for help, including from the head of state.

“I applied to Belsat in order to establish justice. Appeal to the head of state so that all these scoundrels who wanted to deliberately cover their tracks, or unintentionally, be brought to justice, ”- said a resident of Belovezhskaya Pushcha and a former huntsman Igor Akulov.

Ten-year-old Maxim did not return home on September 16, 2017

In the forest near the house, they found the boy's bicycle and his basket. Thousands of people took part in the search.

“I think that it was on this road that something happened to this child. Because not a trace, nothing of this child is left. Officials are skating, he could go out and vote in the evening, and it turned out to be a tragedy,” Mr. Okulov is sure.

The search for the boy began at night

The whole road was dug up by the wheels of the participants of the trophy club "Belovezhsky Bison", who were invited to search. The road leads from the Voytov bridge farm, where the hotel with a bathhouse is located, which belong to the presidential administration, through Novy Dvor, where the boy lived, to the lake, which is rented by the SEC.

“In that hotel, officials and local nobility often rest. On this road they rush like mad, drunk, ”the former huntsman testifies.

special road

For officials, an asphalt road was laid here, not indicated on the maps, with security and surveillance cameras. It connects the hotel in Voitov Most with the village of Borki and leads to the airfield in Klepachi.

“It was necessary to search immediately not according to the version of the disappearance, but according to the crime, I think. Because they searched so much, but no results, ” says another local Mikhail Sushko.

Investigation raises questions from experts

“From the very beginning of the disappearance of Markhaliuk, the investigation dragged on for a long time - 10 days. Why was it drawn when it was necessary to react to it? ”, - the former investigator draws attention Oleg Volchek.

The guest of the program also said that specialists from Russia, using the method of hypnosis, discovered a criminal trace in the disappearance of Markhaliuk.

The boy could not get lost in the forest without a trace

People in the village are afraid to talk about this topic. Are officials afraid of journalistic investigations?

“Everything needs to be neat. And right!!! Because there were a lot of interpretations. You have come, you have come from different channels, television, radio. There needs to be one interpretation! Because they take from different people who are deprived of parental rights, and you interview, they pour dirt there. All this must be done carefully ... Do you understand? (Smiling). Let's hope that you will do everything right ... ”, - the chairman of the village council answered us Vladimir Zdanovich.

Olga Chaychyts, Andrus Kozel, ""

Maxim Markhaliuk went missing on September 16, 2017. The search for the boy is still ongoing. Nobody is going to close the criminal case. Recently, the version that the boy got into an accident has been on everyone's lips. About how the search for the boy is going, about working with psychics and volunteers, and about the versions that the investigation is considering, TUT.BY was told by one of the leaders of the USC in the Grodno region. And Maxim's mother, five months after the disappearance of the child, is still waiting for her son to go home.

Maxim's day before the disappearance, investigators say, was "more than usual." The boy walked on the street, met his peers several times, called them to the forest for mushrooms, and together with a friend went to the "base", where he nailed some boards in a hut. The last time his mother saw him was at about 18:15 - the boy was riding a bicycle down the street near the house.

Everything was as always. And then the child disappeared.

His search began immediately, that same evening, as soon as his mother called the police. Law enforcement officers arrived at the scene - the police and investigators, a little later, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the military began to comb the forest. Then the volunteers joined in.

"The version with the accident was checked immediately"

Two main versions were immediately put forward: an accident happened to the child (he got lost and is in the forest) and a criminal one, - says Deputy Head of the Investigative Committee Department for the Grodno Region, Colonel of Justice Viktor Legan.

According to him, a rescue operation took place in the first two weeks: they were looking for a living child.

The search began from the moment he was reported missing. First, he was searched for by police officers and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the military. Aviation equipment was also used: an autogyro (gyrocopter), three helicopters, an airplane and three drones with thermal imagers. Volunteers to search pulled themselves up when the topic was already dispersed with the help of social networks and the media.

In parallel, a criminal version was worked out. As part of it, they began to locate people who could be in the area of \u200b\u200ba theoretical crime scene. Previously convicted, released, mentally unhealthy and those who fell into the field of view of the police were checked. For example, those who committed sexual crimes. First, those who could be close to the place where the boy disappeared were checked, and later all those who live not only in the Grodno region, but throughout Belarus.

"Now more than five thousand people have been checked for involvement in the disappearance of the child"

These are the categories of people that I named earlier, as well as those who simply could be in the area where the boy disappeared. We have not received any information that could help us. But work in this direction is still ongoing. Including using a polygraph. Now, as before, we are considering these two main versions. As part of them, we also check private subversions.

- For example?

For example, Maxim was a victim of an accident. For some reason, this version is now on everyone's lips. But we checked it out right away. We inspected all the roads that pass through the forest, established the owners of all vehicles seen there at different times - both private owners and carrier organizations. We talked with drivers using a polygraph. Then they examined every car that, according to our information, could be in the area where the boy disappeared. The cars were checked using forensic technology to identify traces of biological origin, as well as traces of damage to the car, characteristic of an accident.

Here, too, no important information was received.

- Was the version of the involvement of one of the relatives in the disappearance of Maxim considered?

Naturally, at the time of the initiation of the criminal case, we checked all versions without exception and did not disregard all the people who communicated with the child and theoretically could be involved in his disappearance. But there was no information that any of the relatives could be involved in the disappearance of Maxim. If we had even the slightest suspicion on this score, then a criminal case would have been initiated on other elements of the crime, and not on the unknown disappearance of a person.

- And why was the case initiated only ten days after the disappearance of the boy?

A criminal case on the fact of the disappearance of a person is initiated 10 days after the receipt of the application, if the search activities have not brought any results. This is the law. But in fact, the date of the initiation of the case does not mean anything: the investigators, along with the police officers, began to conduct operational-search activities immediately. It does not matter whether a criminal case has been initiated or not, such events are carried out in any case, and investigators immediately participate in the search.

At what stage is the investigation of the criminal case now? Is the search for the boy still ongoing and does it make sense?

Search activities have not been terminated. Of course, they are not held as actively as before, but this is solely due to weather conditions. Militiamen, military and operational officers of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Internal Affairs Directorate periodically leave for Novy Dvor. Employees of the Svisloch District Department of Internal Affairs and an investigator who is included in the investigation team searching for Maxim are always on the spot. Periodically, about once a month, meetings are held on the spot, during which we summarize the intermediate results of what has been done and what needs to be done. The criminal case is under control in the Central Office of the Investigative Committee, and the course of the search is under the personal control of the First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.

Hut "base" where the child's bicycle was found

Maxim was afraid of animals, did not swim well and did not navigate the terrain

At the same time, a non-criminal version was also worked out, says Colonel of Justice Victor Legan.

If we take into account that the boy was lost in the forest, then first of all we checked the swamps and nearby reservoirs with the help of divers.

Of course, I would very much like to believe that the boy is alive, but all the experts we talked to say that irreversible processes can occur in the body of a child of his age within seven hours, which in turn can lead to death. That is, theoretically, if in those weather conditions the child lay down under a tree and fell asleep, then it is likely that he could develop pneumonia with the corresponding consequences.

The squares where police officers, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the military worked are marked in brown, volunteers are marked in yellow

We also considered the version that he could be frightened of some animal. Here on the map shows the habitat of those animals that are found in the nearby forests. For example, elk, bison, lynx. Despite the fact that Maxim spent all his free time near the forest or in the forest, he had problems with orientation in the area. There were cases when he got lost, he was also afraid of animals and did not swim well. The boy almost drowned in 2016 - his friends pulled him out of the reservoir.

It can be assumed that he, in a state of passion after a fright, could go to the swamp. In that area, swamps and swamps with a depth of three or more meters. What could - all checked. Even hard-to-reach areas were explored - as far as our capabilities were enough.

- Did only police officers, the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Emergency Situations work in the swampy area, or were volunteers also?

Volunteers were not allowed there. Only employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the military, and the police worked in the area of the alleged place of the disappearance of the boy. It was important not to miss any details. Here you need a professional look. I can assure you that for the entire distance of his possible route, we have explored every centimeter of the ground.

"All of us together walked 200 square kilometers with our feet. Probably, only with the exception of the bottom of the marshes"

We even exceeded the science-based capabilities of an 11-year-old child: even if he wanted to run away, such a long distance that was examined, he could not do it.

- Did the volunteers interfere with all this work? How do you assess the interaction with the search teams?

This is not the first time a person has gone missing when volunteers are involved in the search. But more often than not, we find people in the first few days or weeks. Here it turned out differently. The boy was not found, time is running out, people began to come to the Pushcha in groups. Volunteers did not interfere and, of course, they could not trample any traces. They did their job well in those squares where the security forces did not work. Truly, we are very grateful to all those people who responded and came in search of Maxim.

"We considered all versions. Probably, except for aliens"

What about psychics? We know that during the search for Maksim Markhaliuk, they offered their help and talked about places where they could look for the boy. Were their versions taken into account?

We worked out many private versions. And, of course, they also listened to psychics. We have accumulated three volumes of information shared by caring citizens (one volume - about 250 sheets).

“Dozens of people wrote and called who “consulted with the cosmos”, who “knew exactly the whereabouts of the child”

We responded to each such message. For example, we get information that a certain lady persistently calls Maxim's family and says that she received information from a psychic and knows where the boy is. We find a psychic. She says she didn't tell anyone. Yes, I talked to the lady, but only suggested that my parents, if they were interested, talk to her. We find a lady. We ask where the information comes from. She replies that she was at the reception of a psychic on personal issues and at the same time asked about Maxim. "And by the way the psychic rolled her eyes, I thought she knew something," the woman says. And there were many such calls. We have worked on each of them and will continue to work if we receive any new information. Psychics certainly do not harm us, but if they helped - and I personally do not know of a single case where a clairvoyant helped solve a crime - then we would have worked for a long time.

- What are the most exotic versions did the investigators have to check?

The most exotic are already covered in the media. Probably with the exception of aliens.
For example, there was a version that the boy was "taken apart for organs" somewhere in Lodz. On it, we interacted with our Polish colleagues. They sent them an international order, and the local police examined those institutions where Maxim could allegedly be. They talked to doctors. The version has not been confirmed. Like the story about the boy in the Polish driver's van. On it, we also worked closely with Polish law enforcement officers.

"Moreover, initially we interacted with the Polish border guards and we can say with confidence: the boy did not leave the territory of Belarus"

In any case, the technical means of control did not record the fact of crossing the border.

We checked two German citizens who were hunting in Belovezhskaya Pushcha at that time on our territory. We sent an international assignment to our German colleagues, and they talked with the hunters.

Belarusian tactics and methods of carrying out operational-search and investigative measures to search for the missing are among the most advanced in Europe, investigators say. -If someone disappears there, then they are looking for him on the territory of only one country, but we declare our missing people on the interstate wanted list-.

"I don't believe in any of the versions"

Now the New Court, wrapped in fog and snow, lives its quiet and measured life. The village, where in September volunteers and searchers from all over Belarus gathered, returned to its usual way of life. True, local residents are still discussing what happened and expressing a variety of versions. But the mother of the missing boy does not lean towards any of them: “I don’t want to believe in any of the versions and I’m waiting for my son to go home.”

Maxim's mom - Valentina

Valentina is silent for a long time. We are standing on the porch of the house. The woman is going to work. She, as before, works at a local school as a technician and ran home for lunch.

What can I tell you? the woman finally asks. - That the investigation was poorly conducted, so the child has not yet been found? No, I can’t say that - the investigators worked and are working. I am not an expert to evaluate their activities. And the search was carefully organized. I am very grateful to the volunteers, who all that time were not only in the forest, but also came to me, supported, talked.

- And now you have someone to talk to?

I have almost no friends. Of course, we discuss the loss of Maxim with relatives. They sympathize, but each of them has his own life. Therefore, often we are left alone with my husband. It is especially hard to be at home, where everything reminds you of your son, but he is not.

Valentina says that she knows and even read comments in thematic groups on finding a boy on social networks. He says that some of the remarks become insulting when they, the parents, are blamed for the disappearance of the child.

If only they knew how we feel...

- At some point, psychics joined the search. Did they help you?

Yes, many clairvoyants came. But have you heard their versions?

“According to them, Maxim has long been buried, killed, buried in the forest, or he was taken somewhere in a car. I don’t even want to hear these versions.”

There were many psychics in the first days after the disappearance of Maxim, and now none of them come to us.

- What do you think about the disappearance of your son? Which version do you prefer?

I think nothing. I do not believe in any of the versions. How many there were, and what they just didn’t come up with! By the way, Maxim did not know the forest well, as many here said. So, only this edge, - my mother points towards the forest, which comes close to two-story houses. - I just believe that he will come back. Will walk this road out of the woods as if nothing had happened. You know, sometimes I leave the house, look for a long time at the stadium where he played in the summer, on the street, in the yard and miss him very much. I look forward to it every day. From all these experiences, my father (husband) and I have been on medication all this time.

Valentina speaks quietly, looks tired. From some confusion I ask:

- Maybe you should go somewhere, change the situation ...

How can I leave? What if the baby comes back?

24.09.2017 - 19:43

News of Belarus. When it comes to the safety of one and all, it is understandable why people stand up for the defense of the world. The story in the village of Novy Dvor shows what hope and humanity are when the trouble seems to be someone else's, the Nedelya program on STV reported.

Belarusians from all over the country give up their business and work and go to the Svisloch region to join the search teams. The total number of volunteers is more than 2,000. There has never been anything like it in the country. Looking for 10-year-old Maxim. The boy went missing on September 16th.

In this temple, all the candles have been burning for the last week for the health of Maxim. The village prays: baby, find yourself! And the bells are rung not only to gather the parishioners to the service.

Anatoly Kolyada, rector of the parish of the Church of the Holy Archangel of God Michael:
Not so long ago Maxim's neighbors turned and asked to ring the bells. Maybe so he could hear and be able to find his way.

This photo of Maxim has already spread all over the country. He has a birthday in 2 weeks. And in his own home - not before preparing for the holiday. Parents are shown another photo from the search site. But they shake their heads: no, this vest on the grass is not Maxima.

Leonid Sukach, resident of Novy Dvor village:
A normal boy from a good family. At about 7 o'clock he went here, behind the stadium in a booth. And the mother there, it seems, went later. She came and said: “There is nothing there, only a bicycle is standing, some kind of cat is there and it is not there.”

Alla Goncharevich, director of the Novodvorskaya secondary school:
It was Saturday. Mom called me at half past ten. I immediately got ready, asked literally 3 minutes what happened, and immediately ran there. It's like a personal tragedy for everyone.

The story, where there are no traces and no clues, and there is no little boy either, has become the pain of the whole country. And now, first near the village council, and then at the school stadium, there are a lot of volunteers. Cars with numbers of the entire line of regions. Volunteers travel alone, from organizations and enterprises, or as whole families. Things will wait. Now they are ready to measure the entire Belovezhskaya Pushcha with their steps and wheel turns.

Sergei Frantsevich, volunteer (Pruzhany):
I have a schedule that allows me to work. There is free time to help, why not help find a child. It's a child. At the very daughter.

It's been a rainy week of searching. Volunteers had to comb the forests in spartan conditions.

Alexander Kirilov, volunteer (Volkovysk):
Here is the jumpsuit, it is really wet almost to the waist. The shoes of everyone who came here look like this - we have already twisted them - water really flows from them.

There is no way without heavy artillery.

In addition to volunteers, from the first day the child is searched in conjunction with the foresters by the personnel of the police, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and border guards. The forests are being combed by conscripts and special forces. Drones, gyroplanes and helicopters take to the skies. On board are scientists with thermal imagers and fighters of the special forces detachment of the Ministry of Emergency Situations with climbing equipment. If anything, specialists are ready to land anywhere in the forest. In parallel, swamps and reservoirs are being worked out. The divers came from Grodno and Minsk.

Divers say that the lake is visible well, visibility at a depth of up to 5 meters. But the work is carried out not only under water, but also on the surface - on a boat.

The last time Maxim was seen near the favorite place of the local kids. A hut in the forest - literally right next to the village. For the first 3 days, the father of the child sat on a chair around the clock and waited for his son to return to this place.

Here, next to the hut, Maxim's bicycle and a basket of mushrooms were found. Why the child left them, and he went into the forest, one can only guess. The main version that the police are considering is that the boy was frightened by wild animals.

For a week of searching, the number of people in uniform and volunteers went into the thousands. The locals offered to help with the overnight stay. Meals were organized by the Red Cross.

Dmitry Usakov, Head of the Emergency Response and Tracing Department of the Belarusian Red Cross Society:
In our part, we carry out the task as a search - our detachments are trained in conducting search activities.

If initially the main version of Maxim's disappearance was “lost in the forest”, now the police do not rule out a criminal trace, the details are not disclosed.

Alexander Shastaylo, First Deputy Head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee:
We try as much as possible to check not only the forest area, but also open areas of the terrain.

Well, can there be some kind of criminal version that the boy was stolen or did he run away?

Alexander Shastaylo:
Employees of internal affairs bodies are working in this direction.

Even now, on the 9th day, the search does not stop. It was then that the national trait of Belarusians manifested itself - to be together in joy and in sorrow. They will search for Maxim Markhaliuk to the last. After all, life tells you: there are always chances.

This is an operational video of a special operation in the Mogilev region. The search group was looking for traces of 70-year-old Dmitry Nikitenko. Police, rescuers, relatives, neighbors wandered through the forest for 5 days hoping to find a lost man. Now he is in intensive care, but alive.

Galina Kovaleva, daughter of Dmitry Nikitenko:
The stress is huge. It seemed like a terrible dream that would never end. But there were a lot of people nearby - friends, colleagues, neighbors. The same militia, the Ministry of Emergency Situations - all were nearby.

The main version of the disappearance of Maxim Markhaliuk was announced

News of Belarus. The criminal trace of the disappearance of children in Belarus, fortunately, is a rarity, according to the program "Nedelya" on STV.

With the status of "relevant" and the search for Maxim Markhaliuk. This story in 2017 excited the whole country. The boy disappeared in a village on the edge of Belovezhskaya Pushcha.

The indifference of the volunteers, who came from different parts of the republic to the place of the state of emergency, exposed the mental traits of the "uncommon" Belarusians.

Kristina Kruk, coordinator of the search and rescue squad "Angel":
It was the most extensive searchas a coordinatorand the heaviest.There were about 2,000 volunteers who needed to be coordinated, set the right tasks, and for these tasks to be completed.

But, alas, the search returned no results.

Dmitry Kryukov,Head of the Department of the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Criminal Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus:
Casestillnot pretogrowsand activeactivities are being carried out.Oone of the priority versions -that he got lost in the forest.

For the first time in my life, I indifferently passed by mushrooms - there are a lot of them in the Svisloch region. But we were not looking for mushrooms: 10-year-old Maxim Markhaliuk left home on September 16, and the boy's whereabouts are still unknown. This search has already been called the largest rescue operation in the country. The Ministry of Emergency Situations, the police, the military, employees of forestries and the National Academy of Sciences, local residents and hundreds of volunteers - in the small agricultural town of Novy Dvor, everyone was united by a big misfortune.

If you see wild animals, stop

I found the contacts of Andrey Vorobyov, a resident of Minsk, in the group of the Angel search and rescue squad: there are tables on social networks for volunteers who gather in Novy Dvor from different parts of the country. Those who cannot set off on a journey pass food, things, medicines, necessary equipment through fellow travelers. For the rest, drivers report the number of empty seats in the car, the time of departure and the phone number. A conversation with a stranger takes no more than a minute:

Andrey, can I go with you?

Missing Maksim Markhaluk

On Friday morning we are on our way to the Grodno region. All four in this car have the same answer to the question "Why?". Otherwise, we are parents ourselves. Spouses Andrey and Anna left the kids to their grandmother, designer Alexander - with his wife:

- My child is ten years old, like Maxim. Yesterday I solved all work issues, asked for leave. Didn't explain where. Superfluous.

At the entrance to Novy Dvor along the highway, dozens of cars are parked in a long line - there are no passengers in them, everything is in the forest. The newly arrived volunteers first go to the center of the agro-town: here in the Novodvorsky village council a situational headquarters is set up, and tents of the Red Cross stand nearby on the street. Newcomers are registered by Ekaterina Makarenko:

– At 11:00 am, there are 398 people on the list. Svisloch, Volkovysk, Grodno, Pruzhany, Brest, Kobrin, Soligorsk, Minsk, Molodechno, Gomel - it seems that the whole country has gathered here. Those who could not come were given packages with food, warm clothes, batteries, office supplies. The locals are very helpful, preparing hot meals.

An operational meeting is being held in the village council building, after which instructions will be given in which directions to move. In the meantime, volunteers are divided into groups, provided with printouts of maps and orientations, and instructed:

- It is advisable to download the navigator. Communication in the forest can be lost, so stick to your neighbors. No one enters the forest one at a time - only at the command of the leaders. Prompt, but do not swear. If you notice traces, things, stop the line. Stop when you see wild animals.

There are no foreign children

While waiting for the start, the volunteers discuss only one topic: where can Maxim be? Frightened by the animals and went deep into the thicket? Or maybe hiding in a neighboring village? Kidnapped? No matter how terrible the assumptions are, no one loses hope of finding a child.

“If you don’t believe in the best, then you don’t need to go,” says Pavel Blysh, a pre-conscription teacher at Grodno secondary school No. 28. - The guys and I are almost local, from Sokolniki, we navigate in the forest, although we are looking for a person for the first time.

“There are no other people's children,” Elvira, an entrepreneur from Vaukavysk, joins the conversation. - Especially when trouble happens nearby, how can you sit quietly at home here? Everyone in our city is worried. Who did not go, constantly looking through the news, waiting for a good outcome.

Katerina Pochebut has three children, the youngest is not even a year old:

- Today my husband has a “daddy's” day (an additional day off for parents with many children. - Approx. “ZN”), we decided to use it for good. They asked their grandmother to look after the children, and they themselves came here. Grief can happen in any family, it is impossible not to support.

Elena Morozova from Brest was on the search three times in a week:

- 119 kilometers from home one way, not so far, I'm driving. We walked through the forests, through the swamps - it was empty.

“Check well at the dump, it is not far from the place where the bicycle was found,” Vera Denisovna, an old-timer of the village, approaches a group of volunteers. – I used to work as a school teacher, I know that children can hide in such places. I had students who liked to hide in "shovishcha", in the trees. I don’t see any other places, in the forest everything that was possible has already been bypassed. How long I live, I do not remember so many people here.

In the village council on the table is a list with the telephone numbers of local residents who are ready to provide lodging for the night. Since last Saturday, everyone here has been living with one thought - to find Maxim, Yanina Sikor sighs:

– There are just over 600 residents in Novy Dvor, and everyone who can walk is now in the forest. Teachers, workers, foresters, young people are all there. Maxim's parents and older brother also do not sit at home, they are constantly looking. I don't know what could have happened. Nobody got lost in our village.

Every meter is walked in the forest

If he were here...

Helicopters of the Ministry of Emergency Situations fly in the sky over Belovezhskaya Pushcha. On the ground, every inch of the forest near the agro-town is explored by specialists and volunteers. Our group is sent to the neighboring Studeniki and Boyars: it is necessary to check every yard, attics, abandoned sheds and cellars.

The local grandparents do not need to explain what we forgot here:

- We know, children, we cry every day. We have already searched for him, they came on motorcycles - there is no one.

After several hours of searching the villages, we are convinced that the locals are right. We do not find traces of Maxim in the forest near the New Court. In a chain of 20 people we explore the forest - kilometer after kilometer, until the evening. And nothing. Volunteers go home

- Every meter is covered here. The other day they even found a saw that the foresters had lost many years ago. If Maxim were in Pushcha, they would have found him by now.

And yet there is still hope. The search will continue until the result, assures the head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee, Police Major General Vadim Sinyavsky:

– We have coordinated the activities of all interested bodies and departments, including volunteers. From the first days, three aircraft of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, drones, more than a thousand people have been involved - searches are ongoing at night. Now all possible versions are being worked out. We hope that the boy is alive and will be found soon.

TO THIS TOPIC

The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case into the disappearance of Maxim Markhaliuk in the Svisloch region. On Tuesday, September 26, ten days have passed since the parents filed an application that the child is missing. All this time, operational-search and search activities were carried out, said the official representative of the Investigative Committee Yulia Goncharova:

- As in all similar situations, the investigators got involved in the work from the first days. I note that all versions are being worked out. However, we have no direct reason to say that the disappearance of the boy is of a criminal nature. We ourselves hope for the best.

The child has been searched for a week and a half, but the largest search operation in the country does not produce results. How does it go? Komsomolskaya Pravda tells. [photo, video]

On the 10th day after the disappearance of the boy, a criminal case was opened. The search continues.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

1. How did the boy disappear?

It is known that on September 16, late in the evening, Maxim left home in the agricultural town of Novy Dvor, Svisloch district, Grodno region. He went to the forest for mushrooms. Since then, nothing has been known about him.

- 150 meters from the stadium there is a so-called base - a hut that was built by the boys. His bicycle and a basket of mushrooms were found in this hut. He and his friends picked mushrooms, sold them and bought building materials for their hut with this money - slate, nails. On the evening before the loss, the boy called his friends to go mushroom picking. Two refused and he went on his own- says one of the coordinators of the search and rescue squad "Angel" Dmitry.

True, it later turned out that the basket with mushrooms does not belong to Maxim, but the bicycle really is his.

The search for Maxim Markhaliuk has become the most resonant recent event in Belarus.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

2. When did they start looking for him?

On the same evening, when Maxim did not return home, relatives and neighbors went to the forest. Then the police, rapid response units of the Belarusian Red Cross Society and the search and rescue unit "Angel" joined in. After information about the missing boy appeared in social networks and in the news, first trained search volunteers from all over the country began to gather in Novy Dvor, and then ordinary civilian volunteers.

The Red Cross is also actively involved in search activities.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

3. How many people are involved in the search?

At the moment, Angel and the CenterSpas search and rescue squad, Red Cross volunteers, the military, police, EMERCOM employees, foresters are involved ... Plus, groups of ordinary caring Belarusians come every day who want to help in the search.

Over 1,000 volunteers signed up over the weekend- says the coordinator Dmitry.

On different days, from several dozen people to several hundred volunteers go out to search. Plus, rescuers, military, police and people who go into the forest "AWOL" - without coordinators and coordination with the headquarters.

The surroundings of Novy Dvor within a radius of 10-12 km were combed several times - no traces.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

4. Who is leading the search?

Until now, search and rescue operations have been led by a special headquarters created in Novy Dvor. It includes employees of the Internal Affairs Directorate, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other specialists responsible for the search. Volunteers check maps with headquarters several times a day to note which areas have already been inspected, and where people or special equipment still need to be sent.

—The headquarters gives us squares. There are places where only narrow specialists, trained people are sent. The same swamps: volunteers will not pass there, Dmitry explains.

Caring people from all over the country come to search. Photo: Sergey GAPON

In addition, the headquarters decides when to raise the helicopters of the Ministry of Emergencies into the sky (from above they adjust a chain of people who comb fields and forests, inspect the territory within the search radius). There are also reports on the work of drones with thermal imagers that operate at night.

On the 10th day after the disappearance of the boy, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case. Now the search work and all other procedural actions will be coordinated by the investigators. The case was taken under personal control by the chairman of the Investigative Committee Ivan Noskevich.

Experienced volunteers know that it is better to go into the forest in rubber boots.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

5. What is the search work of volunteers?

Volunteers meter by meter comb the area where, presumably, Maxim was lost. Representatives of the search groups are specially trained people who know how to navigate the terrain, know how to organize volunteers and build the logic of searching on the ground. They act as coordinators in groups. - Unfortunately, there are often not enough coordinators for everyone. And that makes the job very difficult. City people come who have been in the forest a couple of times so far, picking mushrooms, but now they really want to help, for which we thank them. The coordinator needs to instruct them, but also then make sure that they themselves do not get lost, says the volunteers.

Each search group receives its task from the headquarters and works in a certain square.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

Groups from five to several hundred go out in search. Volunteers comb the forest, the surrounding fields: they walk in a chain at arm's length and carefully look under their feet and around. All abandoned buildings, silo pits, cellars, animal feeders in the forest are explored...

Volunteers are dressed in bright vests and instructed. The main rule is to obey the coordinator and not to step aside without asking.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

“We pay special attention to traces of vital activity. Cores, plucked sunflowers and corn cobs, for example. All that we find - traces, things, places to sleep, we transfer all this information to the headquarters, and, if necessary, the special forces of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, dog handlers, go to the place. Investigating traces is not our business, we are only looking, Dmitry adds.

Life in Novy Dvor goes on as usual, but the villagers actively help the volunteers by inviting them to stay for the night and bringing meals.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

6. What area has already been inspected?

- You can walk through the forest endlessly, but we tried to work out the version that the boy was lost in his native forest. We combed all the roads, orientations are hanging everywhere ... At a distance of 8 - 10 kilometers from here, impenetrable swamps begin, even an adult man cannot pass there. Before them, we all climbed, all bypassed. Nearby there is also the Novodvorskoye reservoir - divers worked there. Within a radius of the next 10 kilometers, we were repeatedly. Volunteers trample there all the time. There are no traces - the search engines cross out the surveyed places on the map several times a day.

The geography of the search is constantly expanding - the detachments combed the forest, farms and fields 15 - 20 km from Novy Dvor.

The building is checked even if the doors are closed, but a child could climb through the gap.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

7. What traces were found?

Until now, only Maxim's bicycle has been found - it was thrown near a hut in the forest, where the village boys had their own base. Volunteers also found shoe prints in the swamp, clothes in the forest, but all this has nothing to do with the missing person. There are no more hooks.

Immediately after the loss, a search dog was launched on the trail, but she went out onto the road and lost her scent. But this does not necessarily mean that the boy was taken away in a car or something like that.

From time to time there is information that a similar boy was seen somewhere in the surrounding villages. This information is checked, but so far it has never been confirmed.

Volunteers ask residents of farms and Pushcha villages if they have seen a boy who looks like Maxim.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

8. What versions of the boy's disappearance are being considered?

Until now, the main version was this: he is alive, but lost in the forest. Although the locals immediately said that Maxim knew the forest in the vicinity of the village very well - he even led the lost out of the forest.

However, volunteers model different scenarios.

—The fourth day was the most critical. Before that, it rained, and the boy was dressed lightly enough - this is an instant hypothermia. If something is not eaten, it is diarrhea, vomiting and, as a result, dehydration. I think if he moved, he walked no more than 1.5 - 2 or 3 kilometers, suggests the volunteer. — To the north, to the west, to the east of the village there are roads everywhere, everything is in clearings - it's very easy to get out! But we didn't find a single trace.

In abandoned buildings, they pay attention to traces of a recent overnight stay.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

Abandoned buildings are scrutinized under the scenario that a child is purposefully hiding for some reason. At the same time, there is no information that the boy could have problems at school or at home.

Rescue team coordinators communicate with each other by radio.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

9. How long will the search continue?

In the situational headquarters, which coordinates the search work on the spot, this question is answered briefly and dryly:

Until any result.

What lies behind this veiled formulation is not clear. Volunteers also plan to work as long as there are people who are ready to regularly participate in the search.

“Our job, the search and rescue team, is to rule out the version that the boy is lost,” notes Dmitry.

In the middle of a corn field, they noticed a booth - they checked it too.
Photo: Sergey GAPON

10. Are clairvoyant predictions taken into account?

Lately, the headquarters and volunteers have often received calls from people who claim to be psychics. In the search camp, they are skeptical about them - they need real help, and not indications that the search engines are working in the wrong direction. Nevertheless, some information is discussed and, if there is reason, checked. However, the boy has not yet been found.