Boy in the forest Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Will he be found? Missing children who were found alive after a long time

In Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the search continues for Maksim Markhluk, who disappeared on Saturday, September 16. All the days after the disappearance of the boy, volunteers gathered in the village of Novy Dvor in the Grodno region who wanted to help. A week after his disappearance, a general gathering of all search and rescue teams of Belarus was announced. They launched the largest search operation in the country. But the child has not yet been found.

On Saturday, September 23, more than two thousand people took part in the search for the child. In the small and previously quiet Novy Dvor, headquarters were deployed, aircraft equipment appeared, field kitchens were opened, says TUT.BY.

In the morning, the stadium near the local school is crowded and noisy. It's cold and damp outside - it rained at night. People in brightly colored vests are not yet very organized in ranks. The volunteers were divided into groups. Each has its own section, which today needs to be combed again. By this time, the area around the village had already been surveyed several times.

In addition to volunteers, helicopters of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, which periodically fly around the forest, take part in the search.

Volunteers are patiently waiting. All conversations, here, of course, are about the missing boy and the technological side of the search. Volunteers tell how they walked through the wet forest, how they came out to the swamp and got wet through and through.

Barely warmed up in the evening, - say the girls near the makeshift kitchen.

Despite the fact that the general gathering was scheduled for 9 am, an hour and a half later the stadium was still crowded. The groups are still waiting for the command to enter the forest.

You see, it is very difficult to organize such a number of people. Never before has such a search operation been carried out in Belarus, ”explains the girl who registers the volunteers.

According to her, on Saturday morning, more than 600 people were already on the lists. By lunchtime, this figure had grown to a thousand.

And people keep coming and going, ”she says.

Home at the stadium - Christina Crook... She clearly distributes commands and constantly keeps in touch with the Ministry of Emergencies and the police.

X1, x2, x3. Where did you go? Do you know where to go? Do you have a walkie-talkie? No? Now we will find, - the coordinator is trying to divide the volunteers into groups.

Kristina is the Forest Search Coordinator. She has undergone special training and knows how to organize everything here and not get confused in all groups, ”says the commander of the Angel search and rescue unit. Sergey Kovgan.

Christina, meanwhile, begins to send groups to the forest. Rescuers, militiamen and foresters leave with volunteers to search.

Representatives of the forestry, the police or the Ministry of Emergency Situations have been added to these groups for coordination and communication with the headquarters. On the this moment they are in the forest. People are arriving, the number of participants is constantly increasing, - says the first deputy head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee, police colonel Alexander Shastailo.

The military is also involved in the search. In the afternoon, several army buses arrived at Novy Dvor. In general, what is happening in this village is new not only for volunteers, but also for the Emergencies Ministry and the police: there have never been such search and rescue operations in Belarus.

Of course, things are probably not going quite the way we would like. We arrived last night, at night they didn’t let us look for us, but now we are standing near the forest, and we cannot all go there: we are waiting for instructions from the headquarters, but they are not there. Maybe they would have found him already, - one of the volunteers languishes in anticipation Hope.

The woman came from Pruzhany. She tells how in the evening, in order to do at least something, she could not stand it and went by car through the abandoned farms. But the unauthorized searches ended in vain. She worries that, most likely, she will not take part in a full-scale search.

I have to go home soon. My child is waiting for me, - explains Nadezhda.

The volunteers stretched for almost three and a half kilometers. The group, which includes the girl, stands on the outskirts of the forest. The people have been placed, but no one is allowed into the Pushcha yet. They get nervous, are silent, then begin to discuss what is happening.

There are kilometers of people here, look. It would be faster to go to the forest, and not to waste time - the daylight hours are short, but without a command we will not go to the massif ourselves, people say.

Many came here, succumbing to the first impulse - to help.

Some simply did not calculate their strength. Yesterday we went out of the forest and just fell at the edge, barely reached the stadium. The search is very difficult, ”says one of the volunteers.

Another group is sent from the stadium to the forest, in which they recorded Innu from Minsk. The girl has been participating in search operations with the Angel squad for a long time. She came in search of Maxim immediately.

You know, I was fired from my job because of the search. I did not have time to get to Minsk. She worked in logistics. I spoke with the authorities, warned and asked to understand. She promised to go out in two shifts. At work, they knew about my volunteer activities, treated them with understanding, but in the end it turned out that way, ”says Inna and, as if, calming either us or herself, adds that everything will be fine. - Now the main thing is a boy, but new job I will definitely find it.

Among the volunteers there are a lot of representatives of automobile clubs, whose members know how to navigate in the forest.

Dima has been here for the fourth day, and we arrived only yesterday. We spent the night with the locals, - says Alyona.

The girl brought two dogs with her, there was simply no one to leave them at home with. Not only are these dogs not search dogs, at this stage it is already pointless to involve them in the operation. the fact is that during this time a lot of people have visited the forest, and it is unlikely that the animals will take a trace.

Many volunteers came to Novy Dvor a few days ago. Those who wish are accommodated for the night at the school, some are "dismantled" by local residents. The bulk of the volunteers will remain here for some time. They say until the boy is found.

Our hostess fed us breakfast and even heated the bathhouse. For which many thanks to her. In general, the locals are very friendly and sympathetic to what is happening. They come to the headquarters and ask how to help, but here everything is already organized, - say the girls in the improvised kitchen right in the open air.

Within a few days, an impressive supply of food was formed here. They say that there is no need to carry food, but there are not enough rubber boots and raincoats.

In fact, there are two field kitchens for volunteers in the town: one was organized by the volunteers of the Angel search and rescue squad, the other by the Red Cross.

Red Cross volunteers set up their camp near the village council building. Here, too, they will be served hot food, if necessary, they will provide first aid and offer tea or coffee. Rescuers have their own field kitchen. The headquarters of the authorities is located on the outskirts of the village. Large tents are deployed here, there is special equipment, helicopters and drones.

In search, we use two of our drones, and one was provided by the Academy of Sciences, - says the deputy head of the Grodno UOMChS Sergey Leonov.- As for the study of the terrain, then we have worked out all possible ways following a child of this age. We are combing (and not for the first time) all settlements, roads and forests, through which a person can pass. We analyze all traces found in the forest together with the police. Today we focused on two settlements located near Novy Dvor.

Now about 140 rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations are involved in the search, there are also two mobile groups that work at given coordinates and try to find Maxim with a thermal imager. It helps to find a person where it is difficult to reach.

It looks like this: a mobile group takes off to a certain point, rescuers survey the area, descend, study a certain area and then move on.

At lunchtime, information came that they had found a hut with the child's things. There is animation at the stadium. But it turned out that what was found had nothing to do with the lost boy.

Maxim's father and brother, together with everyone else, have been in the forest for the eighth day. The psychologists of the Ministry of Emergency Situations work with the parents. Local residents also joined the ranks of volunteers.

Igor Sergeevich came from Svisloch with his comrades. He explains that he could not stay on the sidelines, and the forest in the vicinity at one time went up and down.

You know, we are all very worried, all thoughts are only about the boy, - because of the excitement, the man picks up the words for a long time. - We run here every day. Many took time off to participate in the search. We just hope there is a boy.

In the afternoon, the stadium becomes quiet and unusually empty - everyone has gone in search of the child. Groups of volunteers leave the forest, as they say here, "in a checkerboard pattern." In order not to create a crowd, each squad has a certain time for lunch, after which they go back to the forest.

In the evening, everyone returns to the stadium, night searches are prohibited. Untrained people can get lost on their own, although here, as the volunteers assure, there were no such cases. True, there are already enough rumors about those who got lost during this search operation.

Well, one of our groups turned around in the forest. So there were 20 people. They all went out. So far, except for Maxim, they have not been looking for anyone, - the volunteers say.

Both the volunteers and the Emergencies Ministry say that the search and rescue operation will continue until any result.

Let us remind you that the boy disappeared in Belovezhskaya Pushcha last Saturday evening. At about 20.00 the boy rode a bicycle towards the forest near the village of Novy Dvor and disappeared. The police found a child's bike in the forest.

Caring people collect food and overalls, take time off from work and come to the village of Novy Dvor in the Svisloch region of the Grodno region to help in the search.

There are more volunteers than security officials

Volunteers are taken to Pushcha by school buses.

Today in the forest since five in the morning, - Andrey, a volunteer from Grodno, tells us. - We were combing the square with a chain of 140 people. In two and a half hours, we covered only two kilometers. At the roll call, it turned out that the local grandmothers were constantly lagging behind, they had to wait. Of the guides, there are only three people who know the place.

The terrain is deaf, and the thicket is impassable. Not a single ray of light. It's just creepy, - says his friend Alexander.

Those who have visited the Pushcha are skeptical about the chances of long-term survival in it: cold weather, wild animals, swamps. But everyone works and hopes for the best.

Soldiers, police, rescuers are involved in the search. Three helicopters and two unmanned aerial vehicles are taking off into the sky. As Natalya Zhivolevskaya, press secretary of the Grodno regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, explained, about two hundred officers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations went to Pushcha: some climb by helicopter, others comb the massif and swamps, and others provide psychological assistance.

Several versions of what could have happened to the boy are now being considered. But there is no evidence that would indicate that the disappearance of Maksim is of a criminal nature, - told to "Komsomolskaya Pravda" in the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee.

The number of volunteers is expected to rise to two thousand over the weekend. They comb not only the forest, but also check the impenetrable swamps.

There have never been such large-scale searches in the country, according to public search teams.

Searches are being conducted within a radius of 20 kilometers from the village.

Several years ago, an elderly woman was found alive five days later in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. But before she went missing, she was in the store, she had groceries. And then it was warm, - said the commander of the TsentrSpas search and rescue squad Alexander Kritsky.

"The teachers did not notice the psychological characteristics of the boy."

So far, you only have to operate known facts... Maxim's bicycle was found near a gazebo in the forest, not far from the house. In this place, the local kids often spent time. The information of a 30-year-old resident of Minsk who saw the boy in the forest is also considered reliable. It is believed that at that time an hour had passed since the disappearance. It happened about three kilometers from the abandoned bike.

There were no quarrels with him, everything was fine - as usual - says Maxim's mother Valentina. - I talked to his classmates, but they do not know where my son is. Clairvoyants contacted us, but this did not give a result. What could have happened? Maybe the animals scared him? We are very grateful to the people who are looking for it. May God grant them health!

The boy's mother works as a technical assistant at a school, his father is a cattle breeder at a local farm.

At school, we were told that they did not notice any oddities in Maxim's behavior:

Maxim's average score was 7.23. Even considering that the grades were slightly overestimated for the incentive, he studied well. The teachers didn't notice psychological characteristics, a normal child.

Locals say that the child was kind, but shy, he was reluctant to make contact.

The boy is good, calm. He stuttered when he was worried. He was frightened by a dog, and he was afraid of animals in a panic, - recalls neighbor Valentina Evgenievna.

Pensioner divides two-storey house, built by a local SPK, with Markhalyuk. She claims that she has never heard of a couple brawling or punishing a child.

In the village, everyone speaks positively about the spouses.

When Maxim was younger, his mother did not leave for a minute on the playground, she insured on the merry-go-rounds, says neighbor Valentina Evgenievna. - She looked like a hen, Maxim was always with her. But a year ago he slipped off the dam, fell into a pond, and drowned. Then he was saved by a bystander. Bad fate, what can you say.

CHRONICLE OF DISAPPEARANCE

On Saturday, September 16, Maxim Markhalyuk left the house on a bicycle at about 17.30. At about six in the evening, he stopped by his classmate Kirill to call for mushrooms. But he refused.

The mother of the missing child sounded the alarm at eight in the evening. At home there was an agreement - to return no later than this time. And Maxim always came on time.

At ten in the evening, the police received a report of the disappearance. Among the first volunteers was the director of the school, Alla Goncharevich: “At the entrance to the thicket we saw many footprints from bison hooves. People said that not long before that, a whole herd had passed. Perhaps the animals scared Maxim.

On Saturday evening Maxim told his friends that he would go for mushrooms. This will surprise no one here: a dozen meters from his house in the agricultural town Novy Dvor of the Svisloch region begins the reserved Belovezhskaya Pushcha. When the child did not return for dinner, the parents sounded the alarm. 800 meters from the house in the forest near a hut, which the children had built for their games, they found a bicycle and a basket of mushrooms. Since then, the search operation has been going on for more than three days.

On Monday, over 500 people took part in it, on Tuesday - over 300. Volunteers from Grodno and Minsk continue to arrive tonight. The search does not stop day or night.

"All police officers who are free from service are involved, rescuers, foresters, organizations from our and neighboring districts have joined in the search, volunteers are combing the forest. No one is left out of trouble, people are doing even more than one might expect," said the head of the Svisloch District Department of Internal Affairs Valery Romanchuk. He and his colleagues are on their feet for the third day. Huge areas of forest tracts were checked: at first, they worked out the territories near Novy Dvor, then the circle of searches expanded further and further. The account goes to tens of square kilometers. Even larger areas were covered from the air: an EMERCOM helicopter was sent to search. This is the first time such a search operation has been carried out in the area; it happened that adult mushroom pickers could get lost in the forest, but they could be found after a couple of hours.

"The search operation is being carried out on the territory of three forestries: Novoselkovsky, Novodvorsky and Porozovsky", - Valery Romanchuk shows the map. Even on the first night, cars with loud-speaking devices entered all the roads in the vicinity, and fires were made in the forest to attract attention.

The criminal nature of the boy's disappearance is ruled out for now. Several mushroom pickers saw the child on Saturday. He walked along the forest path to the side settlement Voitov Most. This is almost the last dwelling for many kilometers around, impassable swamps begin to the south. However, locals say that the boy knows his surroundings well, finds his bearings in the forest, and this also adds hope.

Another group of search engines gathers near Voitovoy Most: police officers, rescuers, forestry workers and ordinary people... Among them is Lyudmila Kuryan, a vocal teacher from Volkovysk. She joined the search by chance on Sunday: she picked mushrooms, heard about the incident, helped to search.

“We hoped that the boy would be found on Monday. When we heard that there was no result so far, we gathered and came again. Apart from me and my husband, two of our friends arrived, we will look for as long as we can. Everyone who has children will understand us,” notes she, becoming in a chain. On the third day, the comb of search engines becomes thicker: on the first days they walked in a rare chain, tried to shout, now you need to look at everyone square meter the woods.

"And it is not simple here, dense, there is enough windbreak, and the swamp is nearby, in our opinion it is called alyos", - notes Roman Yanovich. He worked in the local emergency department, he knows these places inside and out. Now he joined the combing of the forest, and before that in two days he ran more than a hundred kilometers through the forest and swamp, trying to find the child on his own. Some of the search engines have a mobile phone call. Another witness saw something somewhere, the information is immediately verified. Any lead is important. The dog led to the animal feeder, where the child may have slept. However, it was pouring rain on Monday, and trail work was no longer possible.

"There are many positive examples when the children were alive on the sixth or seventh day of the search. Moreover, the conditions were much more difficult, "- says the coordinator of the forest search of the Angel search and rescue squadron Christina Kruk. A group of twenty people arrived with her: experienced search engines are looking for traces, witnesses, some clues. small size in a dried puddle. Unfortunately, the missing boy was wearing different shoes. Somewhere they found a children's cap - maybe it will lead you on the trail. But no, the child went out into the forest without a headdress.

We catch with the corner of our ear a conversation in a chain of search engines, they say, someone turned to a clairvoyant, and he said where to look for the boy. It was decided to check the information.

In the evening it gets dark in the forest much earlier than in the city. Teams are offered to leave to rest, but people try to comb another area before dark. There are a lot of mushrooms this year, for every taste - boletus, Polish, late chanterelles and chickens, but everyone leaves the forest empty-handed.

The silence of Novy Dvor before sunset is filled with the rumble of voices and motors: dozens of cars from Grodno, Minsk and other regions of the country brought volunteers and volunteers. Tomorrow at dawn, hundreds of people will go out again to search. However, some groups will work at night too. Nobody gives up here, everyone is sure that Maxim will be found.

Many search participants note that they will once again conduct conversations with family and friends. It should be remembered that it is unsafe to go to the forest alone, you must inform your relatives or friends about the intended route and time of return, inform in a timely manner if plans have changed. You should wear comfortable waterproof clothes and shoes, it is not recommended to go into the forest in camouflage - it is better to dress in something bright. You should have a telephone, water, medicine, knife and matches with you. It is also worth learning the basic rules of orienteering in the forest.

Sergey GAVRITSKY,

Photo by Leonid SHCHEGLOV,

Maxim Markhalyuk from the agro-town Novy Dvor of the Svisloch region disappeared a month ago, on September 16. On October 10, the boy turned 11 years old. They are still looking for him.

“The search will be conducted as long as a criminal case is opened. In order to close a criminal case, certain grounds are needed, which no longer exist, ”said Konstantin Shalkevich, head of the information and public relations department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to Naviny.by.

According to him, additional polls are being conducted on the spot, information exchange is being conducted.

The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case into the unknown disappearance of Maxim Markhalyuk - in accordance with paragraph 2 of Art. 167 of the Criminal Procedure Code (10 days after disappearance).

The boy is on the international wanted list - Interpol is also looking for him. As Konstantin Shalkevich noted, when the information about the missing person is placed in the Interpol bank, the information is brought to the attention of the employees who, by the nature of their activity, are looking for the missing people.

“The mechanism of information dissemination, the methods and methods of work of foreign colleagues are the same as ours,” said the head of the information and public relations department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

- You walk past Maxim's mother, she's at work, I don't want to say or ask anything. There is nothing to say, and what to ask. If she had any information, then everyone would already know. So what do you say? To agitate once again is simply impossible. After all, every time she again experiences a tragedy. It can be seen that a person who has lost weight, emaciated - one cannot look without pain and tears. Remember when there was information about the Polish trace? So she just perked up when told. And now ... Now again she has this condition ...

In the largest search operation in the history of the country, aviation and unmanned aerial vehicles were used, professionals and volunteers participated.

On some days, more than two thousand people were involved in the search for the boy, Sergei Kovgan, commander of the Angel search and rescue squad, told Naviny.by.

“Everything possible has been done on the spot. There are still places that no one can technically survey - swamps. We combed everything we could, several times, but there is no information about the boy's whereabouts, ”Kovgan said.

There is an algorithm for a search and rescue operation, experts know what to do and how to do it, Sergei Kovgan emphasized: “The search for the boy has not been stopped; possible ways... This is how we do everything that depends on us. And the law enforcement agencies are engaged in operational-search activities. "

Currently, the "Angel" detachment is looking for more than 54 children, all of them disappeared before Maksim Markhalyuk.

This year alone, "Angel" helped to find dozens of people and thousands in five years of work. However, this public initiative rests only on the enthusiasm of people "who are willing to spend their time and energy in the name of finding other people."

The search for schoolboy Maxim Markhalyuk, who disappeared in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, has not stopped for more than a month.

Maxim Markhalyuk left his home in the village of Novy Dvor (Svisloch District) on the evening of September 16. Since then, nothing has been known about the boy's whereabouts.

“At the moment, MIA officers are looking for Maxim together with dog handlers and a special task force. In spite of everything, we do not lose the hope that the boy will be found, ”- told Sputnik in the Grodno search and rescue squad“ CenterSpas ”.

The members of the detachment, according to representatives of "CenterSpas", always hope that the missing will be found sooner or later. Meanwhile, 40 days have passed since the day Markhalyuk disappeared.

The whole country continues to follow the search for Maxim. In the midst of the search activities, over a thousand people from all over the country came to the village of Novy Dvor - volunteers of the search teams "Angel", "CenterSpas" and others wanted to help the police and the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Ten days after the boy's disappearance, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case. Law enforcement agencies are working out all possible versions of Maxim's disappearance, but the situation with the child's disappearance has not yet been clarified.

In Novy Dvor itself, at the mention of the name of Maxim, they just shrug their shoulders and sigh. On October 10, the boy had a birthday - he was 11 years old. The villagers hoped that they would still find Maxim by his birthday, but there is still no child.

- Absolutely no news. Nobody tells us anything. The Investigative Committee works and does not share anything with us, - says Alla Goncharevich, director of the school where Maxim's mother works. - If the parents knew at least something, we would know too. And so ... Absolutely nothing. We do not give up hope. In fact, there is no child.

But you never know what, there are different fantastic cases. This is not a standard situation. In a simple situation, we had to find him right away at night, well, let it be on Sunday. Well, the maximum on the third day. The situation is simply non-standard. Already there were such searches that it was impossible to come up with, even think about something. All guesses are already at the level of fantasies. From the experience of books, films and life. To come up with something new is very difficult.

According to Alla Ivanovna, of course, the mother worries about her son the most.

- You walk past Maxim's mother, she's at work, I don't want to say or ask anything. There is nothing to say, and what to ask. If she had any information, then everyone would already know. So what do you say? To agitate once again is simply impossible.

After all, every time she again experiences a tragedy. It can be seen that a person who has lost weight, emaciated - one cannot look without pain and tears. Remember when there was information about the Polish trace? So she just perked up when told. And now ... Now again she has this condition ...

Valentina herself does not particularly want to talk to journalists.

“And what can I say if there is no information,” she explains in a quiet, tortured voice. - I'm calling, but there is no information ...