Last Days

The last time I talked on the phone with Valery was June 07, 2012. He said: 'Mom, don't worry - everything is fine with me!' This was on the eve of his trip to Sarych (Crimea) to a seminar held by the Ukrainian Federation of Yoga. We eagerly awaited June 20 - the day when our son should have called. He said that at seminars held by this organization, it was 'not recommended' to contact the outside world, which is a pity... But the son did not call on June 20... For us, this fact was very strange and alarming, because Valery was a responsible, obligatory, and punctual person. This had never happened before. Valery always called immediately upon his return.

On June 21, I searched the Internet for the phone number of instructor Pahola B.E., and then the phones of other seminar participants. I didn't receive clarity or precision in their explanations about my son's disappearance. Therefore, immediately on June 21, I reported to the Balaklava district police department about the missing son. On June 23, my husband and I left for Crimea in search of Valery.

From conversations with seminar participants, we found out that Valery didn't attend classes on June 17 and made the decision to go home on the morning of June 18. He packed all his things, asked the girl in charge of tickets to return his train ticket to Kyiv, and left the camp in a normal, adequate condition heading towards the bus stop.

What happened in this camp? Why did my son stop going to classes? Why did he decide to leave early? Perhaps he understood or found out something? After all, he was a responsible and obligatory person, took his studies very seriously, and gladly went to this seminar. The seminar participants did not give us this answer.

According to the seminar participants, on that same day, around 10 PM, Valery returned to the camp, but without his belongings, wearing a warm sweater (the heat was over +30°), thermal underwear, socks, and barefoot. Among his belongings, he only had an empty suitcase on wheels. No passport, no mobile phone, no camera, no money, no backpack, no tent... he had nothing. Valery, according to the seminar participants who saw him, was inadequate, completely covered in dust, dry leaves, and 'speargrass'. However, he said that now he would go with everyone on June 19.

But he never managed to leave with everyone...

Something was happening during the night and morning of June 19 in this camp...

And at the closing of the seminar on the morning of June 19, Valery was no longer in the camp.

The forensic expert stated that Valery's death occurred on the same day.

At the mentioned closing of the seminar, the instructor asked who had seen Valery last. However, no clear answer was received. And all the seminar participants calmly left for Kyiv. No one started looking for Valery, no one informed me, nor the girl, nor anyone else about the disappearance of my son.

On June 24, Valery's friends from the university arrived in Crimea, and together with us and the men from the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES), they began to search.

On June 25, two more groups of friends from work came from Kyiv to look for Valery.

On June 27, friends from work found a part of Valery's belongings (sneakers, socks, jacket, flashlight, red shorts, sweatpants) on a high boulder on the seashore within the territory of the Ukrainian Federation of Yoga camp. We don't have an answer as to where Valery's remaining things are. Just as we don't have an answer to how the found items appeared in the camp only after our son's death.

The next day, June 28, on my birthday, Valery's friends from work found the body of our son on Mount Gogerjin-Kaya, above the 'Cape Sarych' bus stop.

On the first of July, we buried our only son...

On behalf of our family, our friends, and relatives, we want to bow low to Valery's friends from the university, friends and management from work, employees of the MES of Sevastopol, and all the kind and responsive Crimeans and vacationers. At that very difficult time for us, they shared our terrible grief. Thank you, our kind, sympathetic, and dear FRIENDS!!!

The more we analyze what happened, the more clearly diametrically opposite models of behavior and reactions of people related to our tragedy emerge.

Some - Valery's friends - left their families, work, dropped everything, and came to Crimea in their personal time, using their own money to search for Valery, sometimes risking their lives or health. And others - the seminar participants - everyone to a man went home, leaving Valery in trouble, some from not understanding what was happening, and some for other reasons.

Some people who were obliged to help search for our son did not lift a finger. And someone did not want us to find his body at all.

Valery was not going to pass away. But he was too brave and truth-loving, and never called black - white. Because of this, some respected him, and others feared him.

Valery's passing away wrapped in mystery resonated with pain in the hearts of many, many people, and divided the lives of loved ones into 'before' and 'after'. Someone knows or understands what happened to Valery. Someone could spread a ray of light on what happened and possibly save someone's destiny, save other families from tragedies. But prefers to keep silent. This is everyone's personal choice. And everyone has to live with it.

LIFE will judge EVERYTHING! In people's lives, only LIFE itself is just...