The 11th day of searching for Maxim Markhaluk, who went missing in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, is underway. Two days after a large-scale operation that took place over the weekend, the village and nearby forests look quite deserted, and the number of volunteers has decreased significantly. The headquarters says that they will not stop the search, and ask the population to be more active in coming to help.
They are searching in the same way, but the scale is no longer the same
On Tuesday at 08:30 in the morning, the stadium of the local school, where life was in full swing on Sunday and dozens of cars were parked, is empty. Now the headquarters of the search and rescue camp has moved to the courtyard of the local village council. There are two tents here - the search and rescue team "Angel" and the Belarusian Red Cross.
There are several dozen volunteers. The situation was saved by a large team of employees of OJSC "Grodno Azot" - 100 people. Just like on the weekend, the forest is now being combed, but the scale is no longer the same.
© Sputnik Valeria Solovyova
100 employees of OJSC "Grodno Azot" came to help
The volunteers shrug their shoulders: “There are much fewer people, but we understand that many are working and cannot attend.”
The boy could have left bitten apples or mushrooms
“Are there 30 free people here? Stand here, now I’ll count you, make lists. Now you are the group “12-13”. Call me the same. I’ll call you “hey you”, there’s no time to remember names. Sorry, but we There’s no time for sentimentality here,” the coordinator of the “Angel” search and rescue team begins to form a new group of volunteers.
© Sputnik Valeria Solovyova
The search team needs to comb a forest of 450 hectares. This square will be examined again. Everyone is advised to take a snack, and be sure to bring water. Bottles are handed out to everyone. Then there is a short briefing.
© Sputnik Valeria Solovyova
“So, guys, we don’t litter in the forest. Not a bull, not a stub, not a piece of candy - nothing should be left behind you. I don’t want to walk around the same square tomorrow and find the apple you bitten and think that a child passed here at night. This is jamb. Do you understand? After this, the entire area will have to be combed again," explains the senior group member.
© Sputnik Valeria Solovyova
The departure point is approximately five kilometers. The team goes here in their cars. Then, on command, people line up in a long chain at a distance of several meters from each other. They have to walk at least seven kilometers - slowly, but without stopping. The main task is to look for any traces of life activity.
You need to move through the forest carefully so as not to fall, sprain your leg or get hurt. In such cases, the whole team will have to return, and this is wasted time.
Volunteers come for the day
“My wife and I came from Vaukavysk. I’m a driver, I have a day off today, and my wife works at school. She doesn’t have lessons, so I asked for time off to look for the child,” says Igor.
© Sputnik Valeria Solovyova
This is his second time on the search. Last Friday I went combing the forest in the area of the neighboring village of Porozovo. He recalls that on that day their group saw wolves, scared away a herd of bison, and also found a fresh bed for this animal.
“Why are we coming? It’s a strange question. The family is in grief. If possible, we need to help,” says the man.
© Sputnik Valeria Solovyova
There is also a company of five people who also came for the day. Guys from a village nearby. As soon as we found some free time, we also went here. They say at the call of the heart.
“Lunch? We don’t have lunch. There is the concept of a used square. We’ll comb the assigned area, then we come back, eat and start all over again on a new square,” explains the “Angel” coordinator.
© Sputnik Valeria Solovyova
The headquarters says that there is still enough food in the camp. There are cereals, pasta, stew. Hot food that day was prepared by Red Cross volunteers. Lunch has no set schedule. People arrive as tasks are completed, and some groups have to carry hot food directly into the forest.
One version is that the boy is hiding
“So far, the search has not brought a positive result. The main version is still the same - that the child got lost, but others are being worked out at the same time,” said the representative of the situational headquarters, the head of the Svisloch police department, Valery Romanchuk.
© Sputnik Valeria Solovyova
There are no specific evidence, clues or traces that could at least indirectly indicate the whereabouts of the boy. Coordinators say that the search is complicated by numerous mushroom pickers. They can leave various objects, food scraps, bottles in the forest, which can become false evidence.
The search group also began to work on a backup version. Now it is not ruled out that the child could have intentionally left home. A separate group examines abandoned buildings and farmsteads. Search groups constantly receive information about food remains found. For example, today we found an abandoned house. It is completely closed, there are no people around, but there is an open window through which a child can crawl.
Information also came from locals that they had seen gypsies. This version will also be tested.
According to the search participants, another not fully verified place where the child could end up is a village dump located in the forest, about a kilometer from residential buildings. The guys say that it is very big. It was not possible to examine her in one day.
A criminal case will not stop the search
The headquarters reported that the search for the boy will continue. The fact that today the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case into the disappearance of Maxim Markhaluk will not in any way affect the work of the police and search and rescue teams.
© Sputnik Valeria Solovyova
Iosif Leonko, head of the Department of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus for the Grodno Region, who arrived in Novy Dvor, noted that a group of investigators had already been sent to the village to begin carrying out investigative actions.
“They will interrogate eyewitnesses, find out who the missing child was with and who he spent time with, what his psychological profile is, his social and living conditions. We will find out whether there were external motives and motivations to consciously leave home and hide somewhere. Or it was an accident, and the boy got lost in the forest,” Leonko explained.
In fact, the work will begin anew, but through investigative actions. First of all, investigators plan to start with the school staff and parents.
Volunteers are needed in Novy Dvor
On Tuesday, September 26, more than 300 people were involved in the search. These are the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 100 people from OJSC "Grodno Azot", volunteers, representatives of PSO "Angel", and other organizations.
The headquarters encourages people to come to Novy Dvor more actively on weekdays. There is currently a shortage of both coordinators and regular volunteers.
According to the latest data as of Tuesday evening, September 26, Maxim Markhalyuk has not been found.
Police officers, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and volunteers continue to search for the boy. Unfortunately, there are no results yet. Volunteers are printing and posting orientations throughout the country.
Since September 29, the search for Maxim Markhalyuk has been coordinated by specialists from the TsentrSpas PSO. From now on, only groups consisting of trained and experienced specialists and search team coordinators take part in search activities. The mass gathering of volunteers has been stopped.
On Saturday, September 30, difficult swampy areas were inspected. The search continues.
Photo: TsentrSpas search and rescue team
“We will work until we find the child”, - assured the head of the Grodno regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, colonel of the internal service Sergey Shparlo.
10-year-old Maxim Markhalyuk from the agricultural town of Novy Dvor, Svisloch district, Grodno region, went into the forest to pick mushrooms on the evening of September 16 and did not return. Relatives began looking for him, but to no avail. At 10:13 p.m., the parents reported to the police. Unfortunately, the boy went into the forest without a mobile phone.
Last weekend, September 23-24, took place. They brought together more than 2 thousand volunteers from all over Belarus. About 500 of them are residents of the Brest region.
Since the morning, traffic in the village of Novy Dvor has been regulated by traffic police officers: volunteers arrived in the village from all regions of the country. People brought special equipment, SUVs and ATVs with them. Military, police, Emergency Situations Ministry employees, volunteers and local residents are taking part in the search and rescue operation. It is reported that in total about two thousand people were involved in the work on Saturday, writes sputnik.by.
“Good family, good child. He helps around the house and chops wood with his father. A hardworking boy,” said a local resident.
Video: BelTA
Neighbors of the missing child admit that they are very worried about his fate. Local pharmacies have bought up all the sedatives.
“In the surrounding villages they said that the pharmacies had bought up all the sedatives. Everyone is a mother, everyone has their own children. We are worried about everything,” said a resident of Novy Dvor.
The director of the Novodvorskaya secondary school, Alla Goncharevich, admitted on Saturday on the Belarus 1 TV channel that there is hope that the child will be found.
“If there was no hope and faith left, then I don’t think the movement would have gone on like this. The special services that deal with this say that there is hope. If something happened to the child, he should have been found,” she noted.
However, a new twist has appeared in the search for the boy in Pushcha: the police are looking for a criminal trail
Law enforcement officers are checking citizens who previously came to the attention of internal affairs bodies.
The police are looking into all versions of the disappearance of 10-year-old Maxim Markhaluk, including criminal ones, the ONT TV channel reported on Saturday.
© PHOTO: PSO “ANGEL”
As reported on ONT, on Saturday law enforcement officers are interviewing local residents and the population of nearby villages.
“Currently, appropriate training is underway for those categories of citizens who came to the attention of the internal affairs bodies,” First Deputy Head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee Alexander Shastailo told the TV channel.
Today, about two thousand people are taking part in the search, including specialists from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, police, military, and volunteers of the Angel PSO. Aviation and modern technology are involved. Roads and abandoned houses are patrolled.
“Where our employees, employees of the ministries of defense and internal affairs have passed, we bear a certain responsibility for this territory. At least we didn’t find the lost one there. We will work until a certain result. When there will be any result,” said Sergei Leonov, deputy head of the Grodno regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus, on air.
All caring people who have skills in organizing people and have previously participated in search operations are invited to join the search.
Results of the day
As of 21:30 on Saturday (September 23), the boy was not found, the Angel PSO reported. The search activities were not completed; helicopters from the Ministry of Emergency Situations with thermal imagers began work.
According to Angel, no traces of Maxim were found. At the moment there are no new versions or confirmed facts.
The detachment also expressed gratitude to everyone who takes part in the search, preparation and organization of everything necessary.
For the first time in my life, I indifferently walked past boletus mushrooms - there are many of them in the Svisloch region. But we weren’t looking for mushrooms: 10-year-old Maxim Markhalyuk 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 forestry enterprises 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 disaster.
If you spot wild animals, stop
I found the contacts of Minsk resident Andrei Vorobyov in the group of the search and rescue team “Angel”: tables for volunteers who are going to Novy Dvor from different parts of the country are posted on social networks. Those who cannot go on a journey pass on food, belongings, medicines, and necessary equipment through fellow travelers. For the rest, drivers provide the number of available seats in the car, departure time and telephone number. A conversation with a stranger takes no more than a minute:
- Andrey, can I go with you?
Missing Maxim Markhalyuk
On Friday morning we are heading to the Grodno region. All four people in this car have the same answer to the question “Why?” Otherwise, we are parents ourselves. Spouses Andrei and Anna left their babies to their grandmother, designer Alexander - with his wife:
– My child is ten years old, like Maxim. Yesterday I resolved all my work issues and asked for time off. Didn't explain where. Extra.
At the entrance to Novy Dvor, dozens of cars are parked along the highway in a long line - there are no passengers in them, everything is in the forest. Newly arrived volunteers first go to the center of the agricultural town: here in the Novodvorsky village council a situational headquarters has been set up, and Red Cross tents stand nearby on the street. Newcomers are registered by Ekaterina Makarenko:
– At 11:00 there are 398 people on the list. Svisloch, Volkovysk, Grodno, Pruzhany, Brest, Kobrin, Soligorsk, Minsk, Molodechno, Gomel - it seems the whole country has gathered here. Those who could not come were given bags of food, warm clothes, batteries, and office supplies. The locals are very helpful, preparing hot lunches.
An operational meeting is being held in the village council building, after which they will give instructions 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 may be lost, so stay close to your neighbors. No one enters the Pushcha alone - only at the command of the leaders. Give advice, but don't swear. If you notice traces or things, stop the line. When you see wild animals, stop.
There are no other people's children
While waiting for the start, the volunteers discuss only one topic: where could Maxim be? Frightened by the animals and went deep into the thicket? Or maybe he’s hiding in a neighboring village? Kidnapped? No matter how terrible the assumptions may be, no one loses hope of finding the child.
“If you don’t believe in the best, then you don’t need to go,” says Pavel Blysh, pre-conscription training teacher at Grodno secondary school No. 28. “The guys and I are almost locals, from Sokolniki, we can navigate the forest, although this is our first time looking for a person.
“There are no other people’s children,” Elvira, an entrepreneur from Vaukavysk, joins the conversation. – Especially when trouble happens nearby, how can you sit calmly at home? Everyone in our city is worried. Those who didn’t go are constantly watching the news, waiting for a good outcome.
Katerina Pochebut has three children, the youngest is not even a year old:
– Today is my husband’s “father’s” day (an additional day off for parents with many children. – ZN’s note). We decided to use it for good. They asked the grandmother to look after the children and come here themselves. Grief can happen in any family, it is impossible not to support.
Brest resident Elena Morozova was on the search three times in a week:
– 119 kilometers from home in one direction, not that far, I’m driving. We walked through forests and swamps - empty.
“Check well at the landfill, it’s not far from the place where the bicycle was found,” an old resident of the village, Vera Denisovna, approaches the group of volunteers. – I once worked as a teacher at school, I know that children can hide in such places. I had students who liked to hide in “skhovishchi”, in the trees. I don’t see any other places; in the forest we’ve already gone around everything that was possible. As long as I’ve lived, I don’t remember so many people here.
In the village council on the table there is a list with telephone numbers of local residents who are ready to provide accommodation for the night. Since last Saturday, everyone here has been living with one thought - to find Maxim, sighs Yanina Sikor:
– There are just over 600 inhabitants 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. No one got lost in our village.
Every meter is trodden in the forest
If only he were here...
Helicopters of the Ministry of Emergency Situations ply in the sky over Belovezhskaya Pushcha. On the ground, every inch of the forest near the agricultural town is examined by specialists and volunteers. Our group is sent to neighboring Studeniki and Boyars: every yard, attics, abandoned barns and cellars must be checked.
There is no need to explain to the local grandparents what we forgot here:
“We know, kids, we’ve been crying for days. They were already looking for him here, they came on motorcycles - there was no one.
After several hours of searching through the villages, we are convinced: the locals are right. We find no traces of Maxim in the forest near Novy Dvor. A chain of 20 people explores the forest, kilometer after kilometer, until the evening. And nothing. Volunteers gather at home:
– Here every meter is trodden. The other day they even found a saw that the foresters had lost many years ago. If Maxim had been in the Pushcha, they would have already found him.
And yet there is still hope. The search will continue until the result is achieved, assures the head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee, Police Major General Vadim Sinyavsky:
– We coordinated the activities of all interested bodies and departments, including volunteers. From the first days, three aircraft of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, drones, and more than a thousand people were involved - searches are carried out even at night. All possible versions are currently being studied. We hope that the boy is alive and will be found soon.
TO THE POINT
The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case into the disappearance of Maxim Markhaluk in the Svisloch region. On Tuesday, September 26, ten days passed from the moment the parents filed a statement that the child was 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, investigators got involved in the work from the first days. I note that all versions are being worked out. However, we have no direct grounds to say that the boy’s disappearance is of a criminal nature. We ourselves hope for the best.
The 11th day of searching for Maxim Markhaluk, who went missing in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, is underway. Two days after a large-scale operation that took place over the weekend, the village and nearby forests look quite deserted, and the number of volunteers has decreased significantly. The headquarters says that the criminal case will not end the search, and they ask the population to be more active in coming to help.
They are searching in the same way, but the scale is no longer the same
On Tuesday at 08:30 in the morning, the stadium of the local school, where life was in full swing on Sunday and dozens of cars were parked, is empty. Now the headquarters of the search and rescue camp has moved to the courtyard of the local village council. There are two tents here - the search and rescue team "Angel" and the Belarusian Red Cross.
There are several dozen volunteers. The situation was saved by a large team of employees of OJSC "Grodno Azot" - 100 people. Just like on the weekend, the forest is now being combed, but the scale is no longer the same.
The volunteers shrug their shoulders: “There are much fewer people, but we understand that many are working and cannot attend.”
The boy could have left bitten apples or mushrooms
“Are there 30 free people here? Stand here, now I’ll count you, make lists. Now you are the group “12-13”. Call me the same. I’ll call you “hey you”, there’s no time to remember names. Sorry, but we There’s no time for sentimentality here,” the coordinator of the “Angel” search and rescue team begins to form a new group of volunteers.
The search team needs to comb a forest of 450 hectares. This square will be examined again. Everyone is advised to take a snack, and be sure to bring water. Bottles are handed out to everyone. Then there is a short briefing.
“So, guys, we don’t litter in the forest. Not a bull, not a stub, not a piece of candy - nothing should be left behind you. I don’t want to walk around the same square tomorrow and find the apple you bitten and think that a child passed here at night. This is jamb. Do you understand? After this, the entire area will have to be combed again," explains the senior group member.
The departure point is approximately five kilometers. The team goes here in their cars. Then, on command, people line up in a long chain at a distance of several meters from each other. They have to walk at least seven kilometers - slowly, but without stopping. The main task is to look for any traces of life activity.
You need to move through the forest carefully so as not to fall, sprain your leg or get hurt. In such cases, the whole team will have to return, and this is wasted time.
Volunteers come for the day
“My wife and I came from Vaukavysk. I’m a driver, I have a day off today, and my wife works at school. She doesn’t have lessons, so I asked for time off to look for the child,” says Igor.
This is his second time on the search. Last Friday I went combing the forest in the area of the neighboring village of Porozovo. He recalls that on that day their group saw wolves, scared away a herd of bison, and also found a fresh bed for this animal.
“Why are we coming? It’s a strange question. The family is in grief. If possible, we need to help,” says the man.
There is also a company of five people who also came for the day. Guys from a village nearby. As soon as we found some free time, we also went here. They say at the call of the heart.
“Lunch? We don’t have lunch. There is the concept of a used square. We’ll comb the assigned area, then we come back, eat and start all over again on a new square,” explains the “Angel” coordinator.
The headquarters says that there is still enough food in the camp. There are cereals, pasta, stew. Hot food that day was prepared by Red Cross volunteers. Lunch has no set schedule. People arrive as tasks are completed, and some groups have to carry hot food directly into the forest.
One version is that the boy is hiding
“So far, the search has not brought a positive result. The main version is still the same - that the child got lost, but others are being worked out at the same time,” said the representative of the situational headquarters, the head of the Svisloch police department, Valery Romanchuk.
There are no specific evidence, clues or traces that could at least indirectly indicate the whereabouts of the boy. Coordinators say that the search is complicated by numerous mushroom pickers. They can leave various objects, food scraps, bottles in the forest, which can become false evidence.
The search group also began to work on a backup version. Now it is not ruled out that the child could have intentionally left home. A separate group examines abandoned buildings and farmsteads. Search groups constantly receive information about food remains found. For example, today we found an abandoned house. It is completely closed, there are no people around, but there is an open window through which a child can crawl.
“Through the window, the volunteers were able to take pictures with their phones and see what was inside the house. They found fresh food remains. The police went to check this version,” said Dmitry Ulyanovich, a volunteer of the “Angel” search and rescue team.
Information also came from locals that they had seen gypsies. This version will also be tested.
According to the search participants, another not fully verified place where the child could end up is a village dump located in the forest, about a kilometer from residential buildings. The guys say that it is very big. It was not possible to examine her in one day.
A criminal case will not stop the search
The headquarters reported that the search for the boy will continue. The fact that today the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case into the disappearance of Maxim Markhaluk will not in any way affect the work of the police and search and rescue teams.
Iosif Leonko, head of the Department of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus for the Grodno Region, who arrived in Novy Dvor, noted that a group of investigators had already been sent to the village to begin carrying out investigative actions.
“They will interrogate eyewitnesses, find out who the missing child was with and who he spent time with, what his psychological profile is, his social and living conditions. We will find out whether there were external motives and motivations to consciously leave home and hide somewhere. Or it was an accident, and the boy got lost in the forest,” Leonko explained.
In fact, the work will begin anew, but through investigative actions. First of all, investigators plan to start with the school staff and parents.
Volunteers are needed in Novy Dvor
On Tuesday, September 26, more than 300 people were involved in the search. These are the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 100 people from OJSC "Grodno Azot", volunteers, representatives of PSO "Angel", and other organizations.
The headquarters encourages people to come to Novy Dvor more actively on weekdays. There is currently a shortage of both coordinators and regular volunteers.
According to the latest data as of Wednesday morning, September 27, Maxim Markhalyuk has not been found.
