The search for a 10-year-old maxim in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Police: “Disinformation appeared more than once that the boy was found”

Neither the initiation of a criminal case nor the announcement of a wanted list brought any answer to the question of where the boy was. There is still no news about the already 11-year-old Maxim missing in the Grodno region. None. “Mom Valentina perked up so much when they began to say that they might have seen him in Poland. There was hope, and then even more disappointment.” they say in the village.

Recall that Maxim Markhaliuk from the village of Novy Dvor, Svisloch district, disappeared on the evening of September 16. The boy asked his mother to ride a bike somewhere at half past six in the evening. Brother, who goes for mushrooms, is like at the edge of the forest. At eight in the evening, the boy's mother, Valentina, became worried and began to look for her son. In the forest, near the hut, where children usually play, Maxim's bicycle. Some time later, one of the mushroom pickers told the volunteers that he allegedly saw the boy in the forest. No more traces of Maxim in the forest (clothes, a basket, prints of someone's footprints - all these finds of volunteers, as it turned out, did not belong to the boy).

"Angel": we still help with information

The search for Maxim in Belovezhskaya Pushcha has already gone down in history as the largest. In the first two weeks, from 500 to 2200 people searched for the boy every day - volunteers from all over the country, soldiers, police, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, as well as special equipment - helicopters with thermal imagers, drones ... People combed the territory within a radius of 20-25 kilometers, helicopters with thermal imagers flew even 100 kilometers from the village.

- For our part, we are now helping with information. Our volunteers post orientations in all cities and villages of the country,- says the commander of the AKP "Angel" Sergei Kovgan. Angel and CenterSpas coordinated hundreds of volunteers who were looking for Maxim for more than two weeks.

- Unfortunately, since the disappearance of Maxim, we have not received any information that the boy was seen or noticed somewhere,- concludes Sergei.

The UK is investigating a criminal case, the police continue to search. No information

Meanwhile, the police and the military are still looking for the boy and are leaving for Novy Dvor. In early October, even the riot police combed the Pushcha. The Internal Affairs Directorate of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee noted that all this time, law enforcement officers and employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations did not stop searching and considered all possible versions.

- On Saturday, 20 police officers were looking for the boy, today about 100 servicemen from Minsk joined them,- added to the ATC.

The Office of the Investigative Committee for the Grodno region also has no information about the missing Maksim. The criminal case on the missing person has been under investigation since September 26. They also say here that no version, even a criminal one, is ruled out. After reports from the Polish side that a 10-year-old boy was seen 100 kilometers from the border, Maxim was put on the international wanted list. Since October 6, it has been on the Interpol website. But for now, silence.

- The investigation is underway. There is no additional information, we have already made all the statements,- Sergey Shershenevich, official representative of USK in the Grodno region, dryly told Onliner.by.

Principal of the Novodvorskaya secondary school: “We do not leave hope. In fact, there is no child

In the Novy Dvor itself, at the mention of the name of Maxim, they only shrug and sigh. On October 10, the boy had a birthday - he turned 11 years old. The villagers hoped that they would still find Maxim by his birthday, but the child is still missing.

- Absolutely no news. Nobody tells us anything. The Investigative Committee works and does not share anything with us,- says Alla Goncharevich, director of the school where Maxim's mother works. - If our parents knew anything, we would know too. And so... Absolutely nothing. We do not leave hope. In fact, there is no child. But you never know, there are different fantastic cases. This is not a standard situation. In a simple situation, we had to find him right away at night, well, let it be on Sunday. Well, at least on the third day. The situation is simply unusual. There have already been such searches that it is impossible to come up with, even think of something. All guesses are already at the level of fantasy. From the experience of books, movies and life. It's hard to come up with something new.

According to Alla Ivanovna, of course, the mother is most worried about her son.

- You pass Maxim's mother, she's at work, you don't want to say anything and ask. Nothing to say, nothing to ask. If she had any information, then everyone would already know. So what do you say? Once again to excite - it is simply impossible. After all, every time she again experiences tragedy. It can be seen that the person is thinner, emaciated - one cannot look without pain and tears. Remember when there was information about the Polish trail? So she straight up perked up when they said. And now... Now she has this condition again...

Valentina herself does not particularly want to talk to reporters.

- And what can I say if there is no information,- she explains in a quiet, exhausted voice. - I call but no information...

A year ago, on September 16, in a small village on the outskirts of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The child, who went into the forest and has not yet returned, was searched not only by the police, the military and rescuers, but also by thousands of volunteers from all over Belarus. Where the child could have disappeared is still unknown. Sputnik correspondent Inna Grishuk went to Novy Dvor to find out how the infamous village lives a year after the mysterious disappearance of a schoolboy.

You go into the forest and look under every bush

When I asked if they remember, the locals say: “It would be better if they didn’t exist at all. But Maksimka didn’t disappear.” The disappearance of a quiet and calm fifth grader divided the life of the village into "before" and "after". In the last year, the villagers can only dream of a quiet life.

It turned out that since September 2017 people have been living in tension, excitement and fear of uncertainty, they have learned what an interrogation is, many have passed a lie detector.

On the eve of the black date, ordinary life goes on in the village. Taking advantage of the warm weather, the villagers are trying to dig up potatoes as soon as possible, working in the field until dark. Several women unloading a briquette in the yard say that the loss of a child in their village is no reason to be afraid of the forest. No one will be able to refuse hiking in the forest, because you can earn an extra penny on the gifts of nature.

“We always remember about Maksimka. You go into the forest and look under every bush. What if something is found,” says Valentina.

According to the observations of the woman, this year there were noticeably fewer people in the forest.

“It’s not because of the loss, it’s just that the summer was dry, there were no mushrooms in the forest. Now mushrooms and chanterelles have gone, but potatoes have begun. As soon as they dig up, they will immediately go to pick mushrooms,” explains Valentina.

The parents of Maxim's friends noticed that children now remember him less often, although it is clear that they miss his company. The boys now try to go less often to that hut on the edge, next to which they found the bike of the missing schoolboy.

Mysticism on Zarechnaya Street

A mother of many children from Zarechnaya Street rocks her little son to sleep and tells how she had to communicate with investigators, the police, and act as witnesses. Since October last year, she had another responsibility. The woman started a correspondence with psychics from Belarus, Poland, Canada and other countries. These people somehow contacted her last year through social networks, asked for help with checking their versions, and she agreed.

“I’m worried about Maksimka, I couldn’t refuse them, I want this story to unravel as soon as possible, so I keep in touch with them,” Alla explains.

Mostly they communicate with Alla, who are sure that the child is not alive, that the boy is somewhere in the village, many of them are sure that they need to look in the area of Zarechnaya Street.

Periodically, they ask to check some versions or take photographs of certain places, and then they find mysterious symbols that give the woman and her acquaintances goosebumps.

“How can you not believe them if they indicate the place and guess such details that are impossible to know. About a horse, about a green bag in the corner or a sideboard,” says one of Alla’s acquaintances, who helped her with checking one of the places named by psychics.

“They say that they feel Maxim’s soul in the village and the water next to him, but the mother’s tears can also be water. Outwardly, we don’t see this, but who knows what a person has in his soul, maybe at night he cries bitterly into a pillow. To check everything for sure, you need to talk to your mother, but she doesn’t want to,” the woman adds.

The interlocutor says that the police, although they do not believe in the versions of psychics, sometimes use their advice. But many villagers believe and discuss various scenarios of events, including those with the participation of their own neighbors. Now they have a distrust not only to all visitors, but also to each other. Until the boy is found and there is no exact version of what happened on that day, September 16, 2017, everyone will remain under suspicion.

Parents believe that alive

At the other end of the village, which is closer to Pushcha and Maksimka's parental home, there are more optimistic moods. Neighbors and close friends as one repeat: they have preserved the belief that the boy is alive.

“We all know that he is alive, this is where we have faith,” one of the neighbors says in a firm voice, putting her hand to the heart area.

The boy's mother, like last year, does not want to communicate. Neighbors and colleagues say that she is sure that her son will return home alive. He refuses to believe in other versions.

"Of course, the mother will believe to the last that the child is alive," says one of the women.

The locals are sympathetic to the grief of the family. We are sure that uncertainty torments relatives even more.

Conversations in the store: people are waiting for a miracle

On the doors of the local "Native Kut", where a notice about the search for a boy used to hang, hand-written announcements about discounts and hot offers are now pasted. The women say that the state-owned store started self-promotion when a private trader opened 20 meters away and attracted many customers. The new outlet almost immediately became a place not only for shopping, but also for sharing the latest news.

Vendors from the doorway invite you for shopping, treat you with tea and willingly tell you how the village lives. They have every resident in mind.

“I remember Maxim well when I worked in another store, he often came with his mother, a good, quiet boy. His mother often comes here, but no one climbs into her soul,” says the salesman Irina Cheslavovna in short periods of time, when no buyers.

Her partner Victoria says that everyone in the village is worried about the boy, discussing this story. Many recall a mysterious coincidence in the life of a boy. Exactly one year before his disappearance, he slipped while playing on the lake, fell into the water and nearly drowned. Then one of the adults who accidentally saw the child saved him.

“People are now waiting for September 16. They say that he drowned on September 15. Exactly a year later he disappeared. Maybe now, in a year, Maxim or some kind of clue will be found on this day,” Victoria reports the reasoning of local residents.

Belief in mysticism began to appear, because so far there is no news from the investigating authorities and the police.

"Why didn't they search right away? Everyone searches, searches and cannot find it in any way," one of the villagers says. The man stops her: "What can they find when the volunteers have trampled the whole forest?" And both agree that there is some kind of mystery in history, that the boy could not disappear without leaving any clues.

In the village they see that they are looking for a boy

The fact that search operations are still going on, the residents of Novy Dvor see with their own eyes. For a whole year, the village has been under scrutiny, and it is already beginning to tire many villagers. First, there were thousands of volunteers from all over Belarus who participated in a massive search campaign. They were replaced by the police, the military, investigators, who are constantly in the village and the immediate surroundings throughout the year.

“Earlier, everyone in the village was interviewed, in the spring they searched in the swamps, now in the summer they began to check abandoned houses again. My daughter was recently witnessed,” says Valentina from Lesnaya Street.

An employee of a local store said that she also received a call recently - she had to give the keys to the old house, which is now empty, and consent to a search.

“Everyone is trying to help, we know that the investigators need to find the boy as soon as possible,” explains Irina.

As Sputnik was told in the press service of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Grodno Oblast Executive Committee, at the moment they cannot give any comments on the case of the missing boy.

"So far we have nothing to tell," the press service briefly explained.

The child was searched all over the country

10 year old. In the evening, the boy went for mushrooms, and nothing is known about his whereabouts until now. On the same evening, in the forest, about 300 meters from the village, near the hut, Maxim's bicycle was found, as well as a basket of mushrooms. A little later it turned out that the basket did not belong to the boy.

The 20-kilometer zone was checked once by one of the services, and in 25 kilometers there was a selective check of places where the boy could get into logical or non-logical ways.

How to look for a "lost" in the forest and what to do if you meet a bear? Tips from "Angel" and Nikolai Drozdov11 September 1, 2019 at 09:21Since 2012, volunteers have rescued over 600 people. For one day, we were able, albeit under simplified conditions, to see how the "angels" work.

Maxim Markhaliuk, who disappeared a year and a half ago, is still being sought13 February 7, 2019 at 06:36 pmTo date, the regional police consider an accident to be the main version. It is assumed that the boy went into the forest and got lost.

"Once again we don't go to the Pushcha." How Novy Dvor lives a year after the disappearance of Maxim Markhaliuk48 September 16, 2018 at 12:38 pmExactly one year ago, on September 16, 2017, Maxim Markhaliuk disappeared in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. At first, the police and local residents searched for him, and then volunteers joined the search. Unfortunately, the boy was never found. A year later, TUT.BY visited Novy Dvor.

In Belarus, more than a thousand people were searched for in the forests in five years, 37 could not be found15 July 18, 2018 at 03:39 pmIn Belarus over the past five years, more than 1,000 people have been searched for in the forests, Dmitry Kryukov, head of the department for organizing search work at the main criminal investigation department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said today, BelTA informs.

TRK "Mir" explained how the photo of Maxim Markhaliuk got into a fictional story in the program. Editor fired20 June 7, 2018 at 11:16 pmA photograph of the missing Maxim Markhaliuk appeared in the Family Matters program on the Mir TV channel. She was used to illustrate a fictional story of disputed paternity on Family Matters. Now the channel is investigating how this could have happened.

Photo of missing Maxim Markhaliuk used in fictional story on Mir TV channel44 June 7, 2018 at 12:11The photograph of the missing boy appeared in the Family Matters program on the Mir TV channel. True, they used it to illustrate a fictional story of controversial paternity.

"He swam badly and did not navigate in the forest." Investigator and mother - about the long search for Maxim Markhaliuk88 February 19, 2018 at 07:00Maxim Markhaliuk went missing on September 16, 2017. Now the search for the boy is still ongoing, although not conducted by such a large number of people as in September. Nobody is going to close the criminal case. They are engaged in a special group, which includes 6 investigators and police officers. About how the search for the boy is going now, about working with psychics and volunteers, and about the versions that the investigation is considering, TUT.BY was told by one of the leaders of the USC in the Grodno region. And Maxim's mother, five months after the disappearance of the child, is still waiting for her son to go home.

The police told how the search for Maxim Markhaliuk went on and what is being done now37 December 22, 2017 at 01:18 pmThe police held a day of information in Novy Dvor, where Maxim Markhaliuk disappeared on September 16th. In addition to other topics, the search for a boy was also touched upon.

The term for the investigation of the case of the disappearance of 10-year-old Maxim in Pushcha was extendedNovember 27, 2017 at 13:00Investigators, together with the police, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Defense, local authorities and volunteers, have done a huge amount of work aimed at establishing the whereabouts of the boy.

"We believe that he just went to travel." Maxim, who disappeared in Pushcha, turned 11 years old27 October 10, 2017 at 08:57 pmNow in Novy Dvor there is nothing to remind you that two weeks ago, the largest search and rescue operation in the country in recent times took place here.

"Polish trace" by Maxim Markhaliuk. The truck driver said he was picking up another boy32 October 5, 2017 at 02:09 pmIn the press service of the police of the city of Radom, we were assured that little Maksim, who had disappeared in Belarus, was known here, and if information about any street children appeared, this information would not go unnoticed.

Belarusian Foreign Ministry: no official information from Poland useful for finding our boy has been received6 October 4, 2017 at 06:42 pmThe diplomat said that in connection with reports in the Polish regional media, the Belarusian Embassy in Warsaw and the consulates in Bialystok and Biala Podlaska are monitoring the situation.

"May be related to your missing boy." Police in Poland are looking for a child who hid in a truck178 October 4, 2017 at 01:21 pmA Polish regional information website has reported that Siedlce police are looking for an unidentified 10-year-old boy.

The mother of Maxim, who disappeared in Pushcha, believes that her son is alive. What's new in search?79 October 3, 2017 at 03:19 pmThe woman said that psychologists from the Ministry of Emergency Situations come to her every day and help maintain her morale. But, for example, locals and neighbors treat her grief differently.

There are fewer volunteers, the Ministry of Emergency Situations is working. A report from Novy Dvor, where they have been looking for a child in Pushcha for 13 days78 September 29, 2017 at 08:10 pmAt the moment, searches in Belovezhskaya Pushcha continue, but on a smaller scale. The large camp of the search and rescue squad "Angel" moved to the square near the village council.

Hundreds of volunteers from different cities come to the agricultural town of Novy Dvor, Svisloch district, Grodno region, to help find the missing boy.

September 16 Maxim Markhaliuk and his whereabouts are still unknown. During the week, relatives and local residents, police officers, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the military, border guards, volunteers - hundreds of caring people - are looking for the child.

In the Novodvorsky village council, a situational headquarters was created from representatives of the internal affairs bodies and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and tents of the Red Cross were deployed nearby on the street. Volunteers are registered here, instructed and sent on assignments to groups, fed and warmed with tea for those who returned from the forest. At 11:00 am, there are 398 volunteers on the list, and more are arriving every hour.

Brest resident Elena Morozova was on the lookout on Wednesday. On Friday I came to Novy Dvor again:

- I have two children, one of them is Maxim's age. I cannot sit quietly at home, knowing that the boy may be alone in the forest.

Denis Borodko - from Minsk, he stays here until Sunday:

- People are needed. I regret that I didn’t come earlier, I thought that the news was about to appear that the child was found. When I saw on social networks that volunteers were needed for Friday and Saturday, I got ready and went. I will do everything in my power.

Volunteers are divided into groups, some are sent to comb the forest and swampy areas, others - to search for nearby villages. You need to check everything: yards, abandoned houses, sheds, cellars, wells. Helicopters of the Ministry of Emergency Situations fly over Belovezhskaya Pushcha all day long, and rescuers will work at night. Volunteers are forbidden to go out into the forest after dark - local residents take them for the night.

The search will continue until the boy is found. Head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee, Major General of Militia Vadim Sinyavsky:

- We coordinated the activities of all interested bodies and departments, including volunteers, to organize the search for Maxim. Quite serious forces have been involved from the first days - three aircraft, unmanned aircraft. We hope that the boy is alive and will be found soon.

Currently, more than a thousand people are involved in the search for Maxim Markhaliuk. For those who want to join, experts recommend getting ready - take a change of clothes, raincoats, high rubber shoes, warm socks, binoculars, flashlights, communication equipment and food.