Tigran Hovhannisyan and Mykyta Khanhanov

July 5, 2023April 15, 2026

Tigran Hovhannisyan and Mykyta Khanhanov are Ukrainian schoolchildren murdered by Russian occupiers during Berdyansk city’s stay under Russian occupation.

On September 30, 2022, occupiers kidnapped Tigran, who lived with his grandmother in temporarily occupied Berdyansk. They held the boy in the Russian-occupied police station on Gretska Street, 3 and hid his detention location from his grandmother. During interrogations, Russians tortured the teenager with electric shock, took him to a field, and simulated execution. Later, Tigran’s mother revealed in an interview with Radio Liberty:

He told how they took him to a field, shot at him, forced him to say goodbye to life. Then he told how they beat him with electric current: they threw a wet sheet on his head, put handcuffs on, some wires.

Tigran said: “Mom, it doesn’t hurt, all muscles just contract and you scream. They forced me to say I work for SBU. But I don’t work there.” He cut his hands with handcuffs.

In October 2022, Russian occupiers arrested Mykyta Khanhanov together with his father. In the occupied Berdyansk police station they interrogated and released them.

After this, occupiers obliged Tigran and Mykyta to check in daily at the police “station”, called them for interrogations, conducted repeated searches in their homes. According to Radio Liberty, occupiers demanded children record a video in which they “confess” to committing sabotage on railway tracks.

European Parliament Resolution: Free the Children

On June 15, 2023, the European Parliament adopted a resolution demanding to stop persecuting Tigran Hovhannisyan and Mykyta Khanhanov and release them to Ukrainian-controlled territory. This same document contained an appeal to UN Secretary-General Special Representative responsible for protecting children in conflict zones, Virginia Gamba. But Russian occupiers continued holding the teenagers in temporarily occupied territory.

On the evening of June 24, 2023, a video Tigran recorded appeared on social networks. Where the recording got made is unknown. To whom he addressed in the video is also unknown.

In the short video, sixteen-year-old Tigran sits on the floor in some room with an automatic weapon in his hands. Blood traces are on his fingers. “Two for sure,” Tigran answers a person’s question off-camera. Then he says: “That’s it, this is death, guys. Goodbye”. He clenches his fist in a tactical glove and adds: “Glory to Ukraine”. They answered him “Glory to Heroes”.

That same evening, Vladimir Rogov, head of Zaporizhzhia Oblast occupation administration, announced the deaths of two teenagers. In his statement, he called the children “terrorists”.

Terrorist State Has No Right to Call Ukrainian Children “Terrorists”

We cannot harm friends and acquaintances of the murdered teenagers’ families, nor all those who remained in occupied territory. Therefore, we’re careful in expressions. But simultaneously we believe the terrorist state has no moral right to call Ukrainian children “terrorists”. Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets says almost the same but more diplomatically (quote):

There aren’t enough words to describe the feeling of pride for the young men who resisted the occupiers.

But simultaneously, a feeling of vileness, meanness, and cynicism overflows regarding the terrorist state. After all, what can be said when occupiers allow themselves to kill minors? Kill children?

Establishing all data about the children’s murder currently isn’t possible since Russia occupies Berdyansk. The Ukrainian Media Initiative for Human Rights reports that Russian snipers killed two Ukrainian schoolchildren. We can assume with high probability that Russian occupation authorities will fabricate their “evidence” and publish it through Russian propaganda mouthpieces.

Collaborators Who Tortured and Murdered Children

On July 5, 2023, Ukrainian partisans published a list of occupiers and collaborators involved in torturing and murdering Ukrainian children. Among named collaborators:

1. Vira Siritsa, psychologist and class supervisor of 6-A class from Berdyansk School No. 10. The traitor informed occupation commandant’s office about students and their parents who have pro-Ukrainian position. She was present at all interrogations in which she took active part.
2. Oleh Dryanev, head of military club “Young Friend of Border Guard”. According to unconfirmed information, precisely Dryanev could have handed the boy over to Russians.
3. Yaroslav Shevchenko, works in occupation police. Reportedly, he’s known for his cruel treatment of Berdyansk residents whom occupiers detain.
4. Dmytro Balan, works in occupation police. Reportedly, together with Yaroslav Shevchenko he kidnapped people several times. Then they took kidnapped people to Colony 77 where in an improvised cell they beat and tortured their compatriots with electric current.

The story of Tigran Hovhannisyan and Mykyta Khanhanov is the story of thousands of Ukrainian children — children who became heroes under Russian occupation. They didn’t give up. Their names must be remembered.