Zelenskyy awarded Order of Freedom to 16-year-old Tihran Ohanesian and Mykyta Khanhanov, who were killed by occupiers in Berdiansk
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a decree awarding the Order of Freedom posthumously to Tihran Ohanesian and Mykyta Khanhanov, who were killed by Russian invaders on 24 June 2023 in the temporarily occupied Berdiansk.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to the press centre of the Presidential Office.
As the Office of the President reminded, the boys stayed at home after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion and occupation of Berdiansk. Tihran Ohanesian actively expressed his pro-Ukrainian position, which is why he was repeatedly subjected to pressure from the occupation forces: he was abducted from the house where he lived with his grandmother, subjected to torture and abuse, including electric shocks and mock executions, and arrested by representatives of the occupation authorities.
Mykyta Khanhanov also did not hide his pro-Ukrainian position. In October 2022, the occupiers tried to arrest the boy, interrogated him together with his father, and later began to fabricate a case of alleged sabotage on the railway and conduct searches at home. The case against the boy was being prepared for trial and they planned to sentence him to 20 years in prison.
"Tihran Ohanesian and Mykyta Khanhanov were friends. The occupiers killed them on 23 June 2023. After that, a video with the boys' last words was posted online: "That's it, this is death, guys. Farewell to you. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!"
After two years since the murder, the occupiers have not handed over the bodies of Tihran Ohanesian and Mykyta Khanhanov to their families," the President's Office added.
In June 2023, it became known that two teenagers, Tihran Ohanesian and Mykyta Khanhanov, who were accused by the Russian authorities of allegedly preparing a railway sabotage, had been killed in occupied Berdiansk. Ohanisian managed to post a video on social media in which he said: "Two for sure (referring to shots fired at Russian security forces - ed.) That's it, this is death, guys, goodbye! Glory to Ukraine!".
Subsequently, the occupation authorities in Berdiansk confirmed the killing of two teenagers on 24 June, whom they called "pro-Ukrainian terrorists". Olha Reshetylova, co-founder of the Media Initiative for Human Rights and coordinator of the War and Justice project, said that the teenagers had been killed by a sniper.
In July of this year, the Media Initiative for Human Rights reported that the bodies of the teenagers had not yet been returned to their parents.
