newsinsightplus.com 13yearold17yearold March 4, 2024 0 Comments BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityCultureThe Ukrainian teenagers who returned to a war zone for their school promPublished9 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsWar in UkraineImage source, POLLY BRADENImage caption, Sofiia (second left), Aliesia (third left) and Yuliia (front) with their friends at Lyceum No 2 school in Mykolaiv before the warBy Katie RazzallCulture and media editorSofiia, Yuliia and Aliesia, three school friends from Mykolaiv in Ukraine, were 16 years old when war broke out. They were regular teenagers looking forward to sleepovers and trips to the beach near their home city.But after 24 February 2022, the girls and their families scattered across Europe.For two years, they have connected almost entirely online, using Telegram and Snapchat. “Many of us feel overwhelmed by the loss of friends and the inability to meet them,” Yuliia says.Incredibly, though, they did see each other again in person last summer, in their bombed-out hometown for a school prom.Now, their stories, and those of other Ukrainian women, are being told in a photography exhibition in London.Image source, POLLY BRADENImage caption, Yuliia, Sofia and Aliesia talking over Zoom from Warsaw, Mykolaiv and Gipf-Oberfrick, SwitzerlandWhen they fled Ukraine, the teenagers hoped it would be temporary, as Yuliia tells me they thought “it would take just a few months and we would all go back to Ukraine and back to our lives”.She originally moved with her mother and grandparents to Bulgaria, where a friend lent them a holiday flat. They later moved to Poland.Aliesia’s journey was more intense. She spent weeks travelling by bus and train, staying in tents and hostels, moving from Romania to Switzerland, then France and Spain, before arriving in Krakow, Poland, in May 2022.The whole experience “was not as physically stressful as it was emotionally”, Aliesia says.With her mother, 13-year-old brother, 17-year-old cousin and aunt, they moved into a one-room dormitory. Image source, POLLY BRADENImage caption, Aliesia (second left) with her mum, brother, cousin and aunt, sharing a room in KrakowThe children did online schooling on their bunks, with teachers who had remained in Mykolaiv. Sofiia left Ukraine for Katowice in Poland first. The journey took several days. “There wasn’t a place to stay for the night, my mum wasn’t sleeping for three days, there was no food at the gas stations.”Seven of them, including her mother and her cousin, lived in one bedroom.”It was really difficult.”Image source, POLLY BRADENImage caption, Left-right: Sofiia with her new friends in Katowice in April 2022Sofiia loves dancing and music. She would practise on the outdoor public piano on a street in Katowice. “I didn’t have one at home. I’m really very extroverted, so it was great.”The family have since moved to Switzerland, where she is studying 10 subjects at a prestigious school.Her father died of Covid during the pandemic. Aliesia and Yuliia had to leave their dads behind in Ukraine because men over the age of 18 are banned from emigrating.Aliesia and her father were reunited when the family moved back to Ukraine at the end of 2022. Six months into the war, her mother and aunt found that the hotel cleaning jobs they had in Poland didn’t pay enough to cover rent and other bills.Teenage dreamsPhotographer Polly Braden has tracked the families’ experiences over two years and is about to tell their stories in an exhibition, Leaving Ukraine, at the Foundling Museum in London. After watching reports from inside Ukraine about the men going to war and what they faced, “it felt really important to see what the women were doing and what was happening outside Ukraine”, she says.So she followed the young people as they have built new lives to find out, “what would that be like for them?”They have had to grow up fast.Image source, POLLY BRADENImage caption, Sofiia putting on make-up after school in Katowice in April 2022Sofiia says “very quickly we stopped being teenagers and had to start our life as adults”.Aliesia tells me the “teenage dream”, the one you see “in American movies”, has been taken from them. “I have sometimes had pretty bad mental breakdowns… It was not fair that I can’t enjoy life the same way as people my age from other countries do.”Yuliia says it has “felt very isolating, especially as everyone else in the world is still living their lives like nothing happened”.Image source, POLLY BRADENImage caption, Yuliia at Poland’s Independence Day in Warsaw in November 2023But none of the girls come across as self-pitying. As Sofiia puts it: “It’s not only difficult for us.”Aliesia adds: “We have to sometimes just accept some things we cannot change.”With school friends spread far and wide, last year they began to talk about wanting to have a school prom when their Ukrainian schooling ended.”For such a long while, our friend group was separated, our whole class was separated,” Yuliia says. “So seeing everyone, almost everyone, was really important to all of us.”‘We all felt beautiful’Sofiia began planning her outfit. “If you want to get a prom dress in Switzerland or Italy, it’s very expensive.” She and her mum decided “it would be cheaper to go to Ukraine”. So after school one Friday, Sofiia took a 20-hour bus trip to Lviv, in western Ukraine. She found a gold dress that “was really perfect”, bought it, and took the long journey back to Switzerland.The prom couldn’t be held at their school, which had been bombed.Instead, they hired a local hall. Bombs fell on Mykolaiv a couple of days before the reunion, which made the decision to return difficult because they were “a bit scared”, Sofiia says.Image source, ReutersImage caption, The aftermath of a Russian missile strike in Mykolaiv in July 2023But about 20 teenagers went back for the prom, from new homes as far away as the UK, Austria, Poland, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. They came to dance, party and try to be normal teenagers for just one night.”It was actually much more special than just being a normal teenager, because a prom is quite a special day in anyone’s life,” Yuliia says. “We all felt beautiful and it was kind of magical.”She spent two days getting to Mykolaiv from Poland. “I was very excited.”She also got to see her father for the first time since she had left Ukraine.Sofiia’s mother drove for three days to get them back home, sleeping by the roadside when she felt tired. Everyone understood why it meant so much.Image source, Abramov SergeyImage caption, Left-right: Sofiia, Aliesia, their teacher Svetlana, Iryna and Yuliia at their prom in Mykolaiv in July 2023″The war wasn’t planned and so our lives stopped in one moment,” Sofiia says. “I think it was really very important to have the ending of our school lives, of our teenage lives.”It was an emotional evening, according to Aliesia. “Especially by the end, when we had to say goodbye to each other and realise that we won’t see each other for a long time again.”But for one night, they drank punch (“mildly alcoholic” and “so tasty”, according to Yuliia), danced and sang to Maneskin (Alesia’s “favourite band”), listened to speeches, and as the sun rose in the early hours, went out for a walk.”In the morning, we all felt sad,” Sofiia says, “because it was totally the end of school life.”Polly Braden’s exhibition Leaving Ukraine is at the Foundling Museum in London from 15 March.Related TopicsWar in UkrainePhotographyUkraineTop StoriesUS urges more aid for starving people in GazaPublished1 hour agoI will only cut taxes in responsible way – HuntPublished12 hours agoPolice to return Mia Janin’s lost phone to familyPublished8 hours agoFeaturesDid the last Budget deliver what was promised?Nadiya Hussain: A letter to my teenage daughterBrit Awards 2024: The real winners and losers’I embrace my alopecia, but I’d love my old hair back’ Video’I embrace my alopecia, but I’d love my old hair back’Kate, the King and three other big challenges for royalsJeremy on the Hunt for Tax Cuts. AudioJeremy on the Hunt for Tax CutsAttributionSoundsCan green ‘super powders’ really make you healthy?How Israel-Gaza war is spilling into cultural lifeThe ‘banned’ Star Trek episode that promised a united IrelandElsewhere on the BBCFrom the seizure of Crimea to the war in UkraineThe story of a decade of clashes, told by the Western leaders who traded blows with PutinAttributioniPlayerFrom the largest ship to disasters on deck…A closer look at times when cruise ships have caused commotionAttributioniPlayer’I never tried to be famous…it was accidental’Michael Parkinson with guests Ricky Gervais, Michael Palin and Kate AdieAttributioniPlayerIt’s make or break timeAnother set of eager entrepreneurs hope to impress the fearsome panelAttributioniPlayerMost Read1’No option of life on benefits for young’ – Labour2Police to return Mia Janin’s lost phone to family3Israel agrees to change Eurovision song lyrics4Warning cost of living fund closure ‘catastrophic’5Haiti gangs free 4,000 inmates in mass jailbreak6Tributes to ‘one-in-a-million’ woman as murder arrest made7Kate, the King and three other big challenges for royals8Girl, 7, dies in English Channel crossing attempt9Horner situation can’t continue – Jos VerstappenAttributionSport10US urges more aid for starving people in Gaza [ad_1] Three friends who were separated by the war talk about going back home for a special school reunion. 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newsinsightplus.com 13yearold17yearold March 4, 2024 0 Comments BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityCultureThe Ukrainian teenagers who returned to a war zone for their school promPublished9 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsWar in UkraineImage source, POLLY BRADENImage caption, Sofiia (second left), Aliesia (third left) and Yuliia (front) with their friends at Lyceum No 2 school in Mykolaiv before the warBy Katie RazzallCulture and media editorSofiia, Yuliia and Aliesia, three school friends from Mykolaiv in Ukraine, were 16 years old when war broke out. They were regular teenagers looking forward to sleepovers and trips to the beach near their home city.But after 24 February 2022, the girls and their families scattered across Europe.For two years, they have connected almost entirely online, using Telegram and Snapchat. “Many of us feel overwhelmed by the loss of friends and the inability to meet them,” Yuliia says.Incredibly, though, they did see each other again in person last summer, in their bombed-out hometown for a school prom.Now, their stories, and those of other Ukrainian women, are being told in a photography exhibition in London.Image source, POLLY BRADENImage caption, Yuliia, Sofia and Aliesia talking over Zoom from Warsaw, Mykolaiv and Gipf-Oberfrick, SwitzerlandWhen they fled Ukraine, the teenagers hoped it would be temporary, as Yuliia tells me they thought “it would take just a few months and we would all go back to Ukraine and back to our lives”.She originally moved with her mother and grandparents to Bulgaria, where a friend lent them a holiday flat. They later moved to Poland.Aliesia’s journey was more intense. She spent weeks travelling by bus and train, staying in tents and hostels, moving from Romania to Switzerland, then France and Spain, before arriving in Krakow, Poland, in May 2022.The whole experience “was not as physically stressful as it was emotionally”, Aliesia says.With her mother, 13-year-old brother, 17-year-old cousin and aunt, they moved into a one-room dormitory. Image source, POLLY BRADENImage caption, Aliesia (second left) with her mum, brother, cousin and aunt, sharing a room in KrakowThe children did online schooling on their bunks, with teachers who had remained in Mykolaiv. Sofiia left Ukraine for Katowice in Poland first. The journey took several days. “There wasn’t a place to stay for the night, my mum wasn’t sleeping for three days, there was no food at the gas stations.”Seven of them, including her mother and her cousin, lived in one bedroom.”It was really difficult.”Image source, POLLY BRADENImage caption, Left-right: Sofiia with her new friends in Katowice in April 2022Sofiia loves dancing and music. She would practise on the outdoor public piano on a street in Katowice. “I didn’t have one at home. I’m really very extroverted, so it was great.”The family have since moved to Switzerland, where she is studying 10 subjects at a prestigious school.Her father died of Covid during the pandemic. Aliesia and Yuliia had to leave their dads behind in Ukraine because men over the age of 18 are banned from emigrating.Aliesia and her father were reunited when the family moved back to Ukraine at the end of 2022. Six months into the war, her mother and aunt found that the hotel cleaning jobs they had in Poland didn’t pay enough to cover rent and other bills.Teenage dreamsPhotographer Polly Braden has tracked the families’ experiences over two years and is about to tell their stories in an exhibition, Leaving Ukraine, at the Foundling Museum in London. After watching reports from inside Ukraine about the men going to war and what they faced, “it felt really important to see what the women were doing and what was happening outside Ukraine”, she says.So she followed the young people as they have built new lives to find out, “what would that be like for them?”They have had to grow up fast.Image source, POLLY BRADENImage caption, Sofiia putting on make-up after school in Katowice in April 2022Sofiia says “very quickly we stopped being teenagers and had to start our life as adults”.Aliesia tells me the “teenage dream”, the one you see “in American movies”, has been taken from them. “I have sometimes had pretty bad mental breakdowns… It was not fair that I can’t enjoy life the same way as people my age from other countries do.”Yuliia says it has “felt very isolating, especially as everyone else in the world is still living their lives like nothing happened”.Image source, POLLY BRADENImage caption, Yuliia at Poland’s Independence Day in Warsaw in November 2023But none of the girls come across as self-pitying. As Sofiia puts it: “It’s not only difficult for us.”Aliesia adds: “We have to sometimes just accept some things we cannot change.”With school friends spread far and wide, last year they began to talk about wanting to have a school prom when their Ukrainian schooling ended.”For such a long while, our friend group was separated, our whole class was separated,” Yuliia says. “So seeing everyone, almost everyone, was really important to all of us.”‘We all felt beautiful’Sofiia began planning her outfit. “If you want to get a prom dress in Switzerland or Italy, it’s very expensive.” She and her mum decided “it would be cheaper to go to Ukraine”. So after school one Friday, Sofiia took a 20-hour bus trip to Lviv, in western Ukraine. She found a gold dress that “was really perfect”, bought it, and took the long journey back to Switzerland.The prom couldn’t be held at their school, which had been bombed.Instead, they hired a local hall. Bombs fell on Mykolaiv a couple of days before the reunion, which made the decision to return difficult because they were “a bit scared”, Sofiia says.Image source, ReutersImage caption, The aftermath of a Russian missile strike in Mykolaiv in July 2023But about 20 teenagers went back for the prom, from new homes as far away as the UK, Austria, Poland, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. They came to dance, party and try to be normal teenagers for just one night.”It was actually much more special than just being a normal teenager, because a prom is quite a special day in anyone’s life,” Yuliia says. “We all felt beautiful and it was kind of magical.”She spent two days getting to Mykolaiv from Poland. “I was very excited.”She also got to see her father for the first time since she had left Ukraine.Sofiia’s mother drove for three days to get them back home, sleeping by the roadside when she felt tired. Everyone understood why it meant so much.Image source, Abramov SergeyImage caption, Left-right: Sofiia, Aliesia, their teacher Svetlana, Iryna and Yuliia at their prom in Mykolaiv in July 2023″The war wasn’t planned and so our lives stopped in one moment,” Sofiia says. “I think it was really very important to have the ending of our school lives, of our teenage lives.”It was an emotional evening, according to Aliesia. “Especially by the end, when we had to say goodbye to each other and realise that we won’t see each other for a long time again.”But for one night, they drank punch (“mildly alcoholic” and “so tasty”, according to Yuliia), danced and sang to Maneskin (Alesia’s “favourite band”), listened to speeches, and as the sun rose in the early hours, went out for a walk.”In the morning, we all felt sad,” Sofiia says, “because it was totally the end of school life.”Polly Braden’s exhibition Leaving Ukraine is at the Foundling Museum in London from 15 March.Related TopicsWar in UkrainePhotographyUkraineTop StoriesUS urges more aid for starving people in GazaPublished1 hour agoI will only cut taxes in responsible way – HuntPublished12 hours agoPolice to return Mia Janin’s lost phone to familyPublished8 hours agoFeaturesDid the last Budget deliver what was promised?Nadiya Hussain: A letter to my teenage daughterBrit Awards 2024: The real winners and losers’I embrace my alopecia, but I’d love my old hair back’ Video’I embrace my alopecia, but I’d love my old hair back’Kate, the King and three other big challenges for royalsJeremy on the Hunt for Tax Cuts. AudioJeremy on the Hunt for Tax CutsAttributionSoundsCan green ‘super powders’ really make you healthy?How Israel-Gaza war is spilling into cultural lifeThe ‘banned’ Star Trek episode that promised a united IrelandElsewhere on the BBCFrom the seizure of Crimea to the war in UkraineThe story of a decade of clashes, told by the Western leaders who traded blows with PutinAttributioniPlayerFrom the largest ship to disasters on deck…A closer look at times when cruise ships have caused commotionAttributioniPlayer’I never tried to be famous…it was accidental’Michael Parkinson with guests Ricky Gervais, Michael Palin and Kate AdieAttributioniPlayerIt’s make or break timeAnother set of eager entrepreneurs hope to impress the fearsome panelAttributioniPlayerMost Read1’No option of life on benefits for young’ – Labour2Police to return Mia Janin’s lost phone to family3Israel agrees to change Eurovision song lyrics4Warning cost of living fund closure ‘catastrophic’5Haiti gangs free 4,000 inmates in mass jailbreak6Tributes to ‘one-in-a-million’ woman as murder arrest made7Kate, the King and three other big challenges for royals8Girl, 7, dies in English Channel crossing attempt9Horner situation can’t continue – Jos VerstappenAttributionSport10US urges more aid for starving people in Gaza [ad_1] Three friends who were separated by the war talk about going back home for a special school reunion. Continue reading
newsinsightplus.com 1026UN12hour March 2, 2024 0 Comments BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityUKEnglandN. IrelandScotlandAlbaWalesCymruIsle of ManGuernseyJerseyLocal NewsHow we tracked down the Ukrainian poison sellerPublished8 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage caption, The BBC asked Zakutenko what he had to say to the families of the deadBy Angus Crawford and Tony SmithBBC NewsA Ukrainian man who sells poison to people who want to take their own lives has been named by the BBC. This is the story of how – after a two-year investigation – we tracked the seller down and finally confronted him outside a post office in war-torn Kyiv.On a website where people openly discuss suicide, “the Ukraine supplier” was a name frequently discussed by members. The mysterious trader was shipping a chemical commonly used for suicide around the world from Ukraine’s capital. He has been linked to at least 130 UK deaths. We traced his online store, as well as his email address and PayPal account, and managed to identify the man as Leonid Zakutenko.In January 2022, we decided to make direct contact with Zakutenko, posing as an interested buyer on the pro-suicide forum. He quickly messaged back and said he could supply the chemical. The forum advises users to take anti-vomiting drugs along with the chemical. We asked if he could also supply these and he confirmed that he could.The BBC is not naming either the pro-suicide website or the chemical being sold.Then, a month later, Russian tanks rolled over the border into Ukraine and the possibility of confronting him on his home soil seemed gone for good. With war raging, we didn’t think he would be able to carry on trading.But we continued to catalogue the increasing number of deaths linked to the forum and met families whose loved ones had used the site to help end their lives. If you’ve been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action LineMore than a year passed, but in May 2023, the same forum and chemical hit the headlines following the arrest of another man who was frequently mentioned by members.Kenneth Law was arrested in Canada on suspicion of “counselling and aiding suicide” by distributing the dangerous product worldwide.The former chef has since been charged with 14 counts of murder and linked to hundreds of deaths around the world.It made us wonder if the Ukrainian was still in business and we set about tracking him down.We made contact again, posing as a buyer. He boasted that he was now sending “five parcels a week” to the UK and could offer an express service.For Zakutenko, it seemed, trade was good. Perhaps there was a gap in the market now that Kenneth Law was behind bars. We decided to try again to confront him. In January, we flew to Krakow, in Poland, and took the 12-hour car journey across the border to Kyiv, where we’d arranged to meet Zakutenko through a fixer who spoke Ukrainian. We discovered that Zakutenko was an AirBnB “superhost” and planned to meet under the pretence that we were interested in a long-term lease of one of his apartment rentals.Zakutenko had promised to show us around the apartment and we spent the long journey wondering whether he’d really turn up in person. From Leeds to KyivOur journey through war-torn Ukraine seemed a world away from the small front room in Leeds where the investigation started.There, Catherine Adenekan and Melanie Saville introduced us to the online forum promoting suicide, and the real-life impact it was having. The forum has tens of thousands of users, many of them young and vulnerable. Like Catherine’s son, Joe, who took his own life in April 2020. In just three weeks, the 23 year-old used the forum to source a lethal chemical and learn how to use it. Image caption, Joe’s mother, Catherine, and his sister-in-law, MelanieCatherine still has her son’s suicide note, tightly wrapped in a plastic police evidence bag. In it, he spells out how dangerous the forum had been for him.”Please do your best in closing that website for anyone else,” it reads.She’s been doing just that ever since, together with Joe’s sister-in-law Melanie.Together they have infiltrated the site, documented the numbers of deaths associated with it and identified people selling the chemical.They have been lobbying their local MP and talking to the media in an effort to get the forum closed down. “Without that site, there wouldn’t be a platform for people to sell poison,” says Melanie. The doorstepWhen we finally got to Kyiv and called to confirm arrangements, our hearts sank. Zakutenko told our fixer he was out of town and that a cleaner would show us the place instead. Was he really out of town? Or had he become suspicious? We’d heard stories of Ukrainian men of fighting age being stopped at roadblocks, drafted immediately into the army, and sent to the frontline. Perhaps Zakutenko was just trying to keep a low profile.We went to his apartment, a high-rise Soviet-era block on the city’s outskirts. There was no sign of him.Within walking distance was a post office. A quick check with contacts in London indicated that this was the counter where he’d been dispatching poison – the tracking details on a previous test purchase proved it.We messaged again, this time pretending to be a different UK buyer in urgent need of the chemical. He promised that he would send it within an hour if we paid for his “express” service. We did, hurriedly setting up a payment account and waiting outside his door as the minutes of that hour ticked by.But Zakutenko didn’t emerge.We messaged again. He replied, assuring us that the parcel had been posted and sent a tracking number. We convinced ourselves that he’d moved on and was now using a different post office. But the tracking number didn’t work. So we waited, just in case.Several long hours later a stocky man in a leather jacket and black beanie hat came out of the block, clutching a large black bag, ambling up the road toward the post office. It looked like the photographs we’d seen on Zakutenko’s social media, but it was hard to be certain.We followed the man inside and watched as he posted at least 15 parcels to different consignees around the world. As it was entered into the system, our tracking number suddenly appeared on the Ukrainian postal service website. It was Zakutenko. We had watched him dispatching the poison we had just ordered.Outside we were ready to confront him.But the city’s air raid sirens suddenly came to life, piercing the silence. We made a quick call to our safety adviser, to check if we had to take shelter. Thankfully they confirmed it was a false alarm and we continued to wait. This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.Media caption, Watch: “I don’t sell that. I don’t want to be famous,” says Zakutenko when confronted by BBCThe sirens were still wailing as Zakutenko walked down the post office steps.We asked him why he was sending poisonous chemicals to people who wanted to end their lives. The question was repeated in Ukrainian by our interpreter. “That is a lie,” he told us, before putting his hand over our camera and trying to walk away.We persevered and asked what he had to say to the families of the dead. “I don’t understand what you are talking about,” he replied.Over and over, he said he didn’t understand our questions. But he’d been messaging us in perfect English just a few hours earlier.We have alerted the authorities in both the UK and in Ukraine.The forum, where details of those selling poison are widely shared, is still up. The government says the new Online Safety Act gives Ofcom the power to take action against this kind of website. But Ofcom is still consulting on how the Act will be implemented and enforcement action won’t happen for many months.That’s too long for the families of those who’ve lost lives because of people like Leonid Zakutenko.Related TopicsSocial mediaUK governmentSuicide preventionMental healthUkraineMore on this storyCanadian ‘poison killer’ to head straight to trialPublished2 FebruarySuicide website linked to 50 UK deaths still active despite warningsPublished24 October 2023Top StoriesUN says many bullet wounds among Gaza convoy injuredPublished1 hour agoBiden treads carefully through Middle East minefieldPublished11 hours agoRents soar in commuter towns as tenants priced out of citiesPublished13 hours agoFeaturesWhat video and eyewitness accounts tell us about Gazans killed at aid dropBad blood over Singapore Taylor Swift tour subsidiesThe Papers: ‘Democracy under threat’ and ‘Farewell Navalny’Black country singers: ‘We’re tolerated, not celebrated’The two faces of Robert F Kennedy JrJools ‘can’t believe’ he’s finally number oneHow worried is Labour after losing Rochdale?’Cousin of the Kelpies’ unveiled on Glasgow canalHow big banks are becoming ‘Bitcoin whales’Elsewhere on the BBCWill this elite boarding school fit around them?Five black inner-city teens must leave their old worlds behind…AttributioniPlayerHair-pulling, wrestling and kicking!Watch the moment a violent brawl unfolded in the Maldives ParliamentAttributioniPlayerThe mysterious deaths of Nazi fugitivesThree brothers investigate whether a family connection may explain the truthAttributioniPlayerWhy do people behave the way they do on social media?Marianna Spring investigates extraordinary cases of online hate to find out…AttributioniPlayerMost Read1Killer whale vs shark: Solo orca eats great white2How did the viral Willy Wonka experience go so wrong?3Victoria Beckham’s fashion show disrupted by Peta4Rents soar in towns as tenants priced out of cities5US fashion designer Iris Apfel dies aged 1026UN says many bullet wounds among Gaza convoy injured7Bad blood over Singapore Taylor Swift tour subsidies8Jools ‘can’t believe’ he’s finally number one9’Democracy under threat’ and ‘Farewell Navalny’10How we tracked down the Ukrainian poison seller [ad_1] Leonid Zakutenko sold poison to vulnerable people who wanted to die – we confronted him at a post office in Kyiv. 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newsinsightplus.com 1026UN12hour March 2, 2024 0 Comments BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityUKEnglandN. IrelandScotlandAlbaWalesCymruIsle of ManGuernseyJerseyLocal NewsHow we tracked down the Ukrainian poison sellerPublished8 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage caption, The BBC asked Zakutenko what he had to say to the families of the deadBy Angus Crawford and Tony SmithBBC NewsA Ukrainian man who sells poison to people who want to take their own lives has been named by the BBC. This is the story of how – after a two-year investigation – we tracked the seller down and finally confronted him outside a post office in war-torn Kyiv.On a website where people openly discuss suicide, “the Ukraine supplier” was a name frequently discussed by members. The mysterious trader was shipping a chemical commonly used for suicide around the world from Ukraine’s capital. He has been linked to at least 130 UK deaths. We traced his online store, as well as his email address and PayPal account, and managed to identify the man as Leonid Zakutenko.In January 2022, we decided to make direct contact with Zakutenko, posing as an interested buyer on the pro-suicide forum. He quickly messaged back and said he could supply the chemical. The forum advises users to take anti-vomiting drugs along with the chemical. We asked if he could also supply these and he confirmed that he could.The BBC is not naming either the pro-suicide website or the chemical being sold.Then, a month later, Russian tanks rolled over the border into Ukraine and the possibility of confronting him on his home soil seemed gone for good. With war raging, we didn’t think he would be able to carry on trading.But we continued to catalogue the increasing number of deaths linked to the forum and met families whose loved ones had used the site to help end their lives. If you’ve been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action LineMore than a year passed, but in May 2023, the same forum and chemical hit the headlines following the arrest of another man who was frequently mentioned by members.Kenneth Law was arrested in Canada on suspicion of “counselling and aiding suicide” by distributing the dangerous product worldwide.The former chef has since been charged with 14 counts of murder and linked to hundreds of deaths around the world.It made us wonder if the Ukrainian was still in business and we set about tracking him down.We made contact again, posing as a buyer. He boasted that he was now sending “five parcels a week” to the UK and could offer an express service.For Zakutenko, it seemed, trade was good. Perhaps there was a gap in the market now that Kenneth Law was behind bars. We decided to try again to confront him. In January, we flew to Krakow, in Poland, and took the 12-hour car journey across the border to Kyiv, where we’d arranged to meet Zakutenko through a fixer who spoke Ukrainian. We discovered that Zakutenko was an AirBnB “superhost” and planned to meet under the pretence that we were interested in a long-term lease of one of his apartment rentals.Zakutenko had promised to show us around the apartment and we spent the long journey wondering whether he’d really turn up in person. From Leeds to KyivOur journey through war-torn Ukraine seemed a world away from the small front room in Leeds where the investigation started.There, Catherine Adenekan and Melanie Saville introduced us to the online forum promoting suicide, and the real-life impact it was having. The forum has tens of thousands of users, many of them young and vulnerable. Like Catherine’s son, Joe, who took his own life in April 2020. In just three weeks, the 23 year-old used the forum to source a lethal chemical and learn how to use it. Image caption, Joe’s mother, Catherine, and his sister-in-law, MelanieCatherine still has her son’s suicide note, tightly wrapped in a plastic police evidence bag. In it, he spells out how dangerous the forum had been for him.”Please do your best in closing that website for anyone else,” it reads.She’s been doing just that ever since, together with Joe’s sister-in-law Melanie.Together they have infiltrated the site, documented the numbers of deaths associated with it and identified people selling the chemical.They have been lobbying their local MP and talking to the media in an effort to get the forum closed down. “Without that site, there wouldn’t be a platform for people to sell poison,” says Melanie. The doorstepWhen we finally got to Kyiv and called to confirm arrangements, our hearts sank. Zakutenko told our fixer he was out of town and that a cleaner would show us the place instead. Was he really out of town? Or had he become suspicious? We’d heard stories of Ukrainian men of fighting age being stopped at roadblocks, drafted immediately into the army, and sent to the frontline. Perhaps Zakutenko was just trying to keep a low profile.We went to his apartment, a high-rise Soviet-era block on the city’s outskirts. There was no sign of him.Within walking distance was a post office. A quick check with contacts in London indicated that this was the counter where he’d been dispatching poison – the tracking details on a previous test purchase proved it.We messaged again, this time pretending to be a different UK buyer in urgent need of the chemical. He promised that he would send it within an hour if we paid for his “express” service. We did, hurriedly setting up a payment account and waiting outside his door as the minutes of that hour ticked by.But Zakutenko didn’t emerge.We messaged again. He replied, assuring us that the parcel had been posted and sent a tracking number. We convinced ourselves that he’d moved on and was now using a different post office. But the tracking number didn’t work. So we waited, just in case.Several long hours later a stocky man in a leather jacket and black beanie hat came out of the block, clutching a large black bag, ambling up the road toward the post office. It looked like the photographs we’d seen on Zakutenko’s social media, but it was hard to be certain.We followed the man inside and watched as he posted at least 15 parcels to different consignees around the world. As it was entered into the system, our tracking number suddenly appeared on the Ukrainian postal service website. It was Zakutenko. We had watched him dispatching the poison we had just ordered.Outside we were ready to confront him.But the city’s air raid sirens suddenly came to life, piercing the silence. We made a quick call to our safety adviser, to check if we had to take shelter. Thankfully they confirmed it was a false alarm and we continued to wait. This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.Media caption, Watch: “I don’t sell that. I don’t want to be famous,” says Zakutenko when confronted by BBCThe sirens were still wailing as Zakutenko walked down the post office steps.We asked him why he was sending poisonous chemicals to people who wanted to end their lives. The question was repeated in Ukrainian by our interpreter. “That is a lie,” he told us, before putting his hand over our camera and trying to walk away.We persevered and asked what he had to say to the families of the dead. “I don’t understand what you are talking about,” he replied.Over and over, he said he didn’t understand our questions. But he’d been messaging us in perfect English just a few hours earlier.We have alerted the authorities in both the UK and in Ukraine.The forum, where details of those selling poison are widely shared, is still up. The government says the new Online Safety Act gives Ofcom the power to take action against this kind of website. But Ofcom is still consulting on how the Act will be implemented and enforcement action won’t happen for many months.That’s too long for the families of those who’ve lost lives because of people like Leonid Zakutenko.Related TopicsSocial mediaUK governmentSuicide preventionMental healthUkraineMore on this storyCanadian ‘poison killer’ to head straight to trialPublished2 FebruarySuicide website linked to 50 UK deaths still active despite warningsPublished24 October 2023Top StoriesUN says many bullet wounds among Gaza convoy injuredPublished1 hour agoBiden treads carefully through Middle East minefieldPublished11 hours agoRents soar in commuter towns as tenants priced out of citiesPublished13 hours agoFeaturesWhat video and eyewitness accounts tell us about Gazans killed at aid dropBad blood over Singapore Taylor Swift tour subsidiesThe Papers: ‘Democracy under threat’ and ‘Farewell Navalny’Black country singers: ‘We’re tolerated, not celebrated’The two faces of Robert F Kennedy JrJools ‘can’t believe’ he’s finally number oneHow worried is Labour after losing Rochdale?’Cousin of the Kelpies’ unveiled on Glasgow canalHow big banks are becoming ‘Bitcoin whales’Elsewhere on the BBCWill this elite boarding school fit around them?Five black inner-city teens must leave their old worlds behind…AttributioniPlayerHair-pulling, wrestling and kicking!Watch the moment a violent brawl unfolded in the Maldives ParliamentAttributioniPlayerThe mysterious deaths of Nazi fugitivesThree brothers investigate whether a family connection may explain the truthAttributioniPlayerWhy do people behave the way they do on social media?Marianna Spring investigates extraordinary cases of online hate to find out…AttributioniPlayerMost Read1Killer whale vs shark: Solo orca eats great white2How did the viral Willy Wonka experience go so wrong?3Victoria Beckham’s fashion show disrupted by Peta4Rents soar in towns as tenants priced out of cities5US fashion designer Iris Apfel dies aged 1026UN says many bullet wounds among Gaza convoy injured7Bad blood over Singapore Taylor Swift tour subsidies8Jools ‘can’t believe’ he’s finally number one9’Democracy under threat’ and ‘Farewell Navalny’10How we tracked down the Ukrainian poison seller [ad_1] Leonid Zakutenko sold poison to vulnerable people who wanted to die – we confronted him at a post office in Kyiv. 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