Was the boy found in Belovezhskaya Pushcha? One day of a volunteer: How to search for a missing boy in Belovezhskaya Pushcha

Police: “More than once there was misinformation that the boy had been found.” How one of the largest searches for Maxim, who disappeared in the Pushcha, is going on

10-year-old Maxim Markhalyuk disappeared last Saturday. It was already the eighth day since he went into the forest. All week, volunteers, rescuers, police officers and military personnel combed Belovezhskaya Pushcha, near which the agricultural town of Novy Dvor is located. And volunteers, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the police unanimously say: not a single old-timer remembers such a large-scale search. However, there is still no news yet.

Eight in the morning. Not far from the medical yard of the local agricultural complex there are tents of military and rescue workers. There is smoke coming from the field kitchen. There are also two large helicopters and one drone from the Academy of Sciences, which was supposed to fly out yesterday to search for Maxim. Also, as reported by the Internal Affairs Directorate, they were supposed to search for the boy at night with a thermal imager.

The results of these searches are not yet known. At 10:00 the headquarters meeting began. By 11 o'clock, the chief of staff, deputy chief of the Internal Affairs Directorate, Alexander Shastaylo, will announce the action plan and details of the operation that took place last night.

- Today it is planned to participate 40 people from the regional Ministry of Emergency Situations (Grodno), 34 from Volkovysk Regional Emergency Situations, 34 from Svisloch and 21 from the special forces detachment,- Natalya Zhivolevskaya, press secretary of the Grodno EMERCOM, told Onliner.by. - I want to emphasize that they all take part in the search in their free time from duty. And they volunteered to participate in the search of their own free will.

Another camp, already for volunteers, was located at the stadium of a local school. There are dozens of cars and hundreds of people here. In the center is the headquarters of the rescue teams "Angel" and "TsentroSpas".

There are significantly more people here than yesterday. By nine in the morning, more than a thousand people had already arrived from all over the country. And they keep coming. Many people take their dogs with them.

- We came from Molodechno. There were three cars of us, five people each. We don’t know each other at all, we just decided: “We need to go.” And they wrote off on VKontakte,- says Svetlana, who is participating in the search for the first time. - We left even earlier than four in the morning in order to be there by eight. We are all mothers and fathers, we believe that if something happens to our children, God forbid, then people will also come to our aid.

- We are also from Molodechno. We spent the night here and are now ready to search,- says Maxim, Valery, Olga, Igor and Sergey. The guys periodically help “Angel” in the search and are going to stay until tomorrow if Maxim is not found today.

“Most likely, he got scared of wild animals and ran away and is now wandering somewhere in the forest,” The young people are optimistic. - In any case, we believe in the best.

The guys from the Brest motorcycle club arrived on ATVs. They say it’s much easier to search this way: there are a lot of fallen trees in the forest.

- They let me go from work yesterday. Treated with understanding- says the strong Sergei. According to him, the passages in the forest are difficult: there is a lot of windfall.

- It’s easier for men, guys walk 30 kilometers, women walk 15 kilometers. We walked in a chain, there was a lot of windfall, a lot of rubble, while you looked at everything, of course, the girls lagged behind,- says Sergei.

- We hope that the search today will definitely bring results,- adds his comrade Victor. - Today there are many more people, we think the search radius will expand.

Yura, Tanya, Oksana, Svetlana also took four hours to get to Novy Dvor from Minsk. They say they couldn’t sit at home, knowing that they needed help.

- I have a brother at home of the same age, we are also 11 years apart, like this boy and his older brother. As soon as I think that he could have gotten lost, I get goosebumps,- Oksana explains.

- We simply couldn’t sit at home, knowing that Maxim was there alone in the forest,- the guys say. - There were a lot of people traveling. Those who could not travel, they handed over parcels. We carried medicines, food, and stationery. A lot of people donated money. Trouble leaves no one indifferent.

“On weekdays we couldn’t get away, we worked,” say the guys from Baranovichi. - And at night only specially trained people went into the forest; volunteers were not allowed in. So as soon as it became clear that we needed help over the weekend, we came right away.

Local residents who have been looking for Maxim for a week cannot talk about what happened without tears.

- Oh, if only he could be found today, I can’t talk, sorry, - A tear-stained woman in a red jacket turns away.

- We are all worried about him. We didn’t even see him that day, only one of us saw him, - Fifth graders at school are vying with each other to tell the story.

At headquarters, Angel coordinators are discussing how to distribute people. Not without raised tones. Many people are worried and trying to give each other good advice.

Separately, field kitchen volunteers sort food and prepare tea to feed the children.

On the other side, the Red Cross pitched their tents. There is also water, food and all the information about the missing Maxim.

Internal Affairs Directorate: “If we don’t find the boy in 10 days, we will initiate a criminal case”

After 12:00, we were still able to catch the head of the search headquarters, Maxim Markhaluk, and the deputy head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee, Alexander Shastailo. He told the details of yesterday's search operation.

- As for reconnaissance with thermal imagers, last night experts identified several hot spots. This morning, forces including the republican special forces detachment of the Ministry of Emergency Situations checked these points. They did not give any information about the missing person,- said Alexander Shastaylo.

- At the moment, in the territory where, according to preliminary data, the missing person may be located, searches are being carried out by law enforcement agencies, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the military, regional authorities, and organizations. Also today, a sufficient number of volunteers arrived.

At the moment, over two thousand people are taking part in the search for the boy. We divided the volunteers into organized groups in order to more effectively use people’s capabilities. Foresters, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and the Department of Internal Affairs have been added to these groups, and search and rescue activities are now actively underway.

- Are there any clues or traces?

- We are even returning to those places that were explored earlier, now the territory is quite well-trodden, there are many traces,- noted the chief of staff. - If the traces are of interest, the information is sent to headquarters. A mobile group arrives at this location and inspects in detail the area where traces were found, and the information is transmitted to headquarters. At the moment, all the information received has been checked - there is no result. We are working on various versions, but the main working version is the version that the boy got lost in the forest.

- Are there any other options being considered besides the forest?

- Swampy terrain is being considered. Just today information was received about a wetland area where abandoned buildings are located. A mobile group went there, we dropped it off from a helicopter, and specialists checked this area.

- Is there some kind of criminal version being worked out? Maybe the boy was kidnapped or ran away?

- These versions are being followed up by law enforcement officers. In accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus, 10 days after filing an application with the internal affairs bodies, all information is transferred to the Investigative Committee. And he is already initiating a criminal case.

- Are there any search standards? After how many days do the searches stop?

- There is no established standard as such. The search will continue regardless of the result that is obtained and will be obtained in the future. Perhaps not such forces will be involved, but operational search activities will be carried out. The statute of limitations for such cases is significant.

Ministry of Emergency Situations and volunteers: we comb the territory within the radius where a person could have reached, we even look 100 kilometers away

During the day, the Ministry of Emergency Situations has a task for aviation - to work out points. The idea is simple: the drone flies, and the thermal imager detects “warm objects.” After some time, the drone returns to its place again.

And if he fixes the point again, then a special mobile group is sent there to search the area, including hard-to-reach areas such as islands in swamps and so on.

“This work is still ongoing,” emphasized in the Ministry of Emergency Situations. - We choose the radius based on how many people can walk during this time. Yes, we also take 100 kilometers for insurance.

The second task is the coordination of volunteers. More than once or twice in the groups of the search and rescue team they said that there are a lot of people, but there are not enough coordinators.

Today around 10 a.m. the volunteers were divided into small groups of 30-40 people. Coordinators - foresters and employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations - were sent along with them. By the way, the latter employs about 140 people; these are rescuers not only from the Grodno region, but also from the Brest region. The guys lined up in a chain and went to comb the forest.

- Pay attention to any caches, hiding places, holes, - curators explain to volunteers. - If you fall behind or encounter a hard-to-reach place, tell it to the curator, and he stops the entire chain. It's clear?

- The girl tried to literally crawl into the house and ask questions to her parents,- said the director of the Novodvorskaya secondary school Alla Goncharevich. - Now the parents have decided not to communicate with the press.

Added. Law enforcement officers: “Disinformation has been spread more than once”

- Around 3 p.m., volunteers stumbled upon some things. They were handed over to Maxim’s parents, but the things turned out to be not his,- representatives of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee told Onliner.by. Neither volunteers nor aviation found any more clues.

As of 20:00 on September 23, 2017, the boy was not found. Volunteers are currently looking for overnight accommodation in the agricultural town; many will spend the night in tents. They can continue their search tomorrow.

At 21:24, summary information on the results of today appeared on the website of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee. Law enforcement officers summarize: a week of searches did not yield any results.

- Today, the already combed areas were once again worked out. Large forces have been deployed to check all the pits that are located near the village - reports the press service of the Internal Affairs Directorate. - Deputy Head of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee Alexander Shastailo noted that today law enforcement officers once again went around all the houses in the village, checked attics and wells, and housing and communal services employees also checked sewer hatches in order to exclude the possibility of a child getting there.

“It’s nice to see how events like this can bring people together.” More than two thousand people came in search of Maxim from neighboring regions, - noted at the Internal Affairs Directorate. - Volunteers, the Red Cross, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, despite the weekend, came to provide assistance. And some who could not come are helping financially; a lot of food, water and essential goods have been brought for the volunteers. All this was received from concerned citizens.

According to law enforcement officers, they are pursuing all possible leads and checking any information received at headquarters.

- Once again I would like to draw attention to the problem of the spread of false information, - warns the ATC. - On some resources they found news where condolences were expressed to the parents, since the boy was found dead in a noose. There was also news that he was seen by the Ministry of Emergency Situations while flying in a helicopter, and he escaped from them.

This information is not true. Each of those people who are there makes every effort to find Maxim. This kind of information can undermine the morale of people who are working hard. And it’s scary to imagine how parents and relatives will feel after reading this kind of misinformation.

The search for the missing Maxim Markhaluk continues.

The search continues, but so far there are no results, they strictly say at the situational headquarters, which was deployed in the agricultural town of Novy Dvor, in the Svisloch district of the Grodno region.

All information related to the search for the missing Maxim Markhaluk flows here. They are led by the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Rescuers and volunteers of the Angel search and rescue team check maps several times a day, marking already checked areas of the forest. Red Cross tents are also set up here. Its employees register volunteers and provide all searchers with lunch and dinner. The menu includes pasta with meat, porridge, instant mashed potatoes, sausages, lard, cookies, tea and coffee to choose from...

People gave us so much food - we could probably feed half of Belarus,” the volunteers joke. “Plus, the locals regularly bring us food; the military’s field kitchen was open on weekends. We are very grateful for this help!

There are no problems with lodging for the night either: the military were sheltered in the gym of a rural school, the “angels” were taken home by local residents.

Groups of volunteers from all over the country come to search for Maxim every day.

Give me a task where to go and look! I'm in my car, I have a flashlight and boots! I’m from Gomel, - even after lunch people come to the camp who want to help with the search in some way.

Most of the volunteer participants were registered on the weekend - about one and a half thousand, the volunteers note.

Those interested are sent to the forest in an organized manner and with a trained coordinator with a walkie-talkie, map and compass. Everyone is wearing bright green vests.

We comb the forest in groups in certain squares. The chain sometimes stretches for 200 - 500 meters, people walk side by side at arm's length, says Dmitry, one of the Angel coordinators. He has been participating in the operation for a week now.

The forest within a radius of 10 - 12 km from the place where the boy entered the forest has already been combed in this way several times. Divers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations checked the nearest bodies of water, searchers were even in the swamps!

They are looking for the boy in abandoned houses and farm buildings, on farmsteads.

Check, there's a barn in the cornfield, what's in there? - the senior search group gives the command.

Get in line and let's settle the deal. Don't leave a single step without warning! - here they require you to maintain discipline so that you don’t have to search the forest for the volunteers themselves.

Searchers are checking dugouts and huts in the forest, monitoring whether new tracks have appeared in the plowed fields in the area. Maxim seemed to have disappeared into the ground!

We are looking for any traces of life. Particular attention to stubs, torn ears of corn, for example. Everything here is surrounded by clearings and roads, it’s very easy to get out. But still nothing,” Dmitry shrugs. “We are exploring abandoned buildings in case he is not really lost, but is hiding - he is a child, maybe he was scared of something.”

The version that he is hiding is also being pursued. The headquarters says that the search will continue until any results are obtained. What it should consist of - the number of hectares of forest covered or the discovery of at least the boy's things - is not explained.

Angel volunteers plan to make a decision in the next few days about how long they will continue their work. The detachments continue to check the surrounding area within a radius of 15 - 20 km from the village, but there is no point in searching the entire Pushcha.

I think within the next few days people will stop coming to search. But there is the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the military, they have special equipment, Dmitry sums up.

HAVE A QUESTION

On Monday, it was still unknown when a criminal case would be opened into Maxim’s disappearance. But as soon as this happens, the Investigative Committee will become the main one in the investigation of the boy’s disappearance

By the way, the basis for initiating a criminal case is the disappearance of a person if it is not possible to establish his whereabouts within ten days from the date of filing the application.

The Department of Internal Affairs of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee says that the main version of what happened is that the boy got lost in the forest and is still there.

It is clear that the search cannot continue forever. The search area is closed: the forest has been combed by Emergency Situations Ministry employees, dog handlers, police, military personnel, volunteers, and aviation. But there are swampy places that are simply technically impossible to check one hundred percent,” says Sergei Kovgan, commander of the “Angel” search and rescue squad.

BY THE WAY

More than 50 missing children are being sought

Usually the location of the guys can be established within ten days.

This year, the internal affairs bodies received over 500 reports of missing minors. Last year, law enforcement officers located more than 1,100 teenagers. These figures are cited by the newspaper “On Guard”. In this case, usually the whereabouts of the guys can be established within ten days - before the investigation is initiated. By the way, the bulk of the statements concern the disappearance of children over 12 years old.

From 1994 to the present day, just over 50 missing minors continue to be wanted.

Unfortunately, tragedies do happen. This year, investigators discovered the remains of a girl who disappeared in 2012, and three suspects in her murder were detained.

Another tragic example. In 2014, two girls, 4 and 6 years old, who were on vacation with their parents, disappeared in the forest in the Vetkovsky district. The police and volunteers searched for children in the forest. Unfortunately, they drowned - their bodies were found in Sozhe.

The Angel search and rescue team knows of two cases where a child was taken out of the country in an unknown direction by one of the parents. In one of them there was a mother, and in the other - a father. These children are also wanted.

AND AT THIS TIME

Volunteer fired for absenteeism

Concerned people collect food and protective clothing, take time off from work and come to the village of Novy Dvor, Svisloch district, Grodno region, to help in the search.

There are more volunteers than security forces

Volunteers are transported to the Pushcha by school buses.

Today we’ve been in the forest since five in the morning,” Andrey, a volunteer from Grodno, tells us. - They combed the square with a chain of 140 people. In two and a half hours we covered only two kilometers. At roll call it turned out that the local grandmothers were constantly lagging behind and had to be waited for. Of the guides, there are only three people who know the places.

The area here is remote and the thicket is impassable. Not a single ray of light. It’s just creepy,” says his friend Alexander.

Those who have visited the Pushcha are skeptical about the chances of long-term survival in it: cold weather, wild animals, swamps. But everyone works and hopes for the best.

Soldiers, police, and rescuers are participating in the search. Three helicopters and two unmanned aerial vehicles take to the skies. As Natalya Zhivolevskaya, press secretary of the Grodno regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, explained, about two hundred officers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations went to the Pushcha: some climb by helicopter, others comb the area and swamps, and others provide psychological assistance.

Several versions of what could have happened to the boy are now being considered. But there is no evidence that would indicate that Maxim’s disappearance is of a criminal nature, Komsomolskaya Pravda was told at the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee.

It is expected that the number of volunteers could rise to 2,000 over the weekend. They not only comb the forest, but also check impenetrable swamps.

According to public search teams, such large-scale searches have never happened in the country.

The search is being conducted within a radius of 20 kilometers from the village.

Several years ago, an elderly woman was found alive after five days in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. But before she went missing, she was in the store, she had groceries. And then it was warm,” said Alexander Kritsky, commander of the TsentrSpas search and rescue team.

“The teachers did not notice the psychological characteristics of the boy”

For now we have to operate only with already known facts. Maxim’s bicycle was found near a gazebo in the forest, not far from the house. Local children often spent time in this place. The information of a 30-year-old Minsk resident who saw the boy in the forest is also considered reliable. It is believed that at that time an hour had passed since the disappearance. This happened about three kilometers from the abandoned bicycle.

There were no disagreements with him, everything was fine – as usual, says Maxim’s mother Valentina. “I talked to his classmates, but they don’t know where my son is.” Clairvoyants contacted us, but this did not yield any results. What could have happened? Maybe the animals scared him? We are very grateful to the people who are looking for it. God bless them!

The boy’s mother works as a technician at a school, his father is a cattle breeder on a local farm.

At school we were told that they did not notice any strangeness in Maxim’s behavior:

Maxim's average score was 7.23. Even if we take into account that the grades were slightly inflated for incentive, he studied well. The teachers did not notice any psychological characteristics; he was a normal child.

Locals say that the child was kind, but timid, and was reluctant to make contact.

The boy is good and calm. He stuttered when he was nervous. The dog scared him, and he was terrified of animals,” recalls neighbor Valentina Evgenievna.

The pensioner shares a two-story house, built by a local agricultural cooperative, with the Markhaluks. She claims that she has never heard of the couple arguing or punishing the child.

In the village everyone speaks positively about the spouses.

When Maxim was younger, his mother did not leave him on the playground for a minute, she belayed him on the carousel,” says neighbor Valentina Evgenievna. - She looked like a mother hen, Maxim was always with her. But a year ago he slipped off the dam, fell into a pond, and drowned. Then a passer-by saved him. Evil fate, what can I say.

CHRONICLE OF THE DISAPPEARANCE

On Saturday, September 16, Maxim Markhalyuk left home on a bicycle at approximately 17.30. At about six in the evening he stopped by his classmate Kirill to invite him to pick mushrooms. But he refused.

The mother of the missing child sounded the alarm at eight in the evening. There was an agreement at home - to return no later than this time. And Maxim always came on time.

At ten o'clock in the evening the police received a report of the disappearance. Among the first volunteers was the school director, Alla Goncharevich: “At the entrance to the thicket we saw many marks from bison hooves. People said that not long before this a whole herd had passed by. Perhaps the animals scared Maxim.

Neither the initiation of a criminal case nor the wanted notice brought any answer to the question of where the boy is. There is still no news about 11-year-old Maxim, who disappeared in the Grodno region. None. “Valentina’s mother perked up so much when they started saying that they might have seen him in Poland. There was hope, and then even greater disappointment,”- Onliner.by journalists are told in the village.

Let us remind you that Maxim Markhaluk from the village of Novy Dvor, Svisloch region, disappeared on the evening of September 16. The boy asked his mother to go for a bike ride at about half past seven in the evening. He told his brother that he was going to pick mushrooms, walking around the edge of the forest. At eight in the evening, the boy’s mother, Valentina, became worried and began looking for her son. In the forest, near the hut where children usually play, Maxim’s bicycle was discovered. After some time, one of the mushroom pickers reported to the volunteers that he allegedly saw a boy in the forest. No more traces of Maxim were found in the Pushcha (clothes, a basket, prints of someone’s footprints - all these finds by 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 2,200 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 and 100 kilometers from the village.

- For our part, we are now helping with information. Our volunteers post up orientation cards in all cities and villages of the country,- says the commander of the AKP “Angel” Sergei Kovgan. “Angel” and “TsentrSpas” coordinated hundreds of volunteers who searched for Maxim for more than two weeks.

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

The Investigative Committee is investigating the criminal case, the police continue the search. No information

Meanwhile, police officers and military personnel are still looking for the boy and are going to Novy Dvor. At the beginning of October, even riot police were combing the Pushcha. The Department of Internal Affairs 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 military personnel from Minsk joined them,- added to the Internal Affairs Directorate.

The Office of the Investigative Committee for the Grodno Region also has no information about the missing Maxim. The criminal case into the missing person has been investigated here since September 26. They also say here that they do not rule out any version, even a criminal one. 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, information about him has been on the Interpol website. But for now there is silence.

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

Principal of Novodvorskaya Secondary School: “We don’t give up hope. In fact, there is no child.”

In Novy Dvor itself, when Maxim’s name is mentioned, they just shrug and sigh. On October 10, the boy had a birthday - he turned 11 years old. Fellow villagers hoped that they would 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 my parents knew anything, we would know too. And so... Absolutely nothing. We don't give up hope. In fact, there is no child. But you never know, there are all sorts of fantastic cases. This is not a standard situation. In a simple situation, we had to find him right away at night, or even on Sunday. Well, maximum 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, films and life. Coming up with something new is very difficult.

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

- You pass by Maxim’s mother, she’s at work, you don’t want to say or ask anything. There is nothing to say, and nothing to ask. If she had any information, everyone would already know. So what do you say? It’s simply impossible to stir things up again. After all, every time she again experiences the tragedy. It is clear that the man is thin and exhausted - it is impossible to watch without pain and tears. Remember when there was information about the Polish trace? So she straight up perked up when they said it. And now... Now she has this condition again...

Valentina herself doesn’t really want to talk to journalists.

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

GRODNO, September 18 – Sputnik, Inna Grishuk. In the village of Novy Dvor, a camp of volunteers from Belarus worked all weekend, who came to look for a boy who had disappeared in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Grief united people and gathered more than two thousand people in one place. How the camp worked and what the search participants talked about, in the Sputnik report.

Volunteer camp at the school stadium

The local school stadium became the gathering point for volunteers. A headquarters was set up here and a field kitchen was set up. Every morning, from 7 a.m., visitors began to flock here.

Search for Maxim Markhaluk, who disappeared in Belovezhskaya Pushcha

Volunteers from the search teams persistently asked everyone: “Guys, register, sign up for our lists, even if you took part in the search yesterday.”

Such formalities are needed not only for reporting. Each person in the notes to the lists indicated his level of training, whether he had a car, a walkie-talkie, or any equipment useful for forest searches. And at headquarters they were already deciding where to send the person.

The operational headquarters, which now leads the search operation and coordinates the actions of all volunteers, was formed on Friday. Meetings are held in the morning, evening and throughout the day in the building of the local village council.

The leaders include representatives of the regional police department, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the leadership of the Svisloch region, and representatives of search and rescue teams.

Tasks are given by the headquarters

While the morning headquarters meeting is taking place, volunteers stand in small groups and wait for instructions to be given to them. All volunteers were given free bright vests before heading into the forest. A field kitchen immediately opened. People were poured hot tea, given porridge, and were advised to take sweet, high-calorie bars and water into the forest.

“Are you going with us into the swamp? Right now, in the swamp? No? Then why are you asking questions? Now we need to act, not talk,” the stocky man answers and quickly leaves.

The rest are also ready for any test. Some even came from Gomel or Mogilev; there were also Russian license plates on cars, but mostly from the Minsk, Grodno and Brest regions. Some took dogs with them, others brought ATVs, which can be used to comb the forest in remote areas in off-road conditions.

“We’re going on a search for the first time. But we’ll be able to navigate in the forest. We have this kind of ammunition because we’re from an airsoft club,” say the guys in camouflage, with walkie-talkies, compasses and backpacks.

The majority were like them, inexperienced. But at headquarters they reassure: even completely green ones are needed. When forming search groups, all newcomers are given experienced coordinators as commanders who know how to read maps, use a compass and strictly follow the instructions of headquarters.

Volunteers were taught how to comb the forest

A group of women sat on a bench near the school. They have rubber boots and scarves on their heads. “We are teachers from a neighboring village. About 200 teachers from the region should come. The whole team will go on a search. Whatever the headquarters decides, we’ll go,” says the teacher.

Before heading into the forest, the commander of a small detachment receives a task and a map on which the search location is marked. Mostly civilians are sent to comb the forest.

“You must stand in a chain at a distance of about two meters from each other. Only I and the person at the end have a compass. On command, we all change lines and move forward. There will be more space on the ground, it will work out better there,” conducts a five-minute master class for the new team Red Cross worker.

As the head of the headquarters from the Grodno Regional Department of Internal Affairs, Alexander Shastailo, explained, volunteers are divided into groups, they are given coordinators, maps indicating the territory that needs to be surveyed. Everyone is working to comb the area.

“The area around the village of Novy Dvor has been cordoned off within a radius of about 10 kilometers. More than two thousand people have received the task. Divers and rescuers are examining the lakes and swamps adjacent to the village,” added Shastaylo.

In the camp they said that they were sent to be on duty on forest roads, checking feeders for animals, gazebos for hunters, abandoned houses and barns. If the group comes across places where they can hide from bad weather, they should check if there are any signs of a person there. You also need to pay attention to tree debris, wells, straw stacks, and road hatches.

In the Pushcha swamps the water is waist-deep

Workers of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park also decided to join the search. They are in cars and know the forest well. They say that it is especially difficult to search in the Pushcha.

“Swamps, deep forest areas, where human passage is problematic without special means and equipment. There are thickets, windbreaks, but mostly swampy terrain,” says a specialist from the national park.

Rescuers from the Svisloch regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations are standing nearby. Most of them have the day off. For a week everyone was in the Pushcha searching, but now they joined of their own free will. They are sent to the most difficult areas. Those who are not on the search for the first time are wearing high fishing boots; many have boots and legs wrapped in film above the knees.

“Yesterday we were searching, and everyone was wet to the waist. There was water, mud, and rain. The main thing there is not to lose your boots. But they only send us to the most difficult areas. They won’t let civilians into the swamp, it’s too dangerous. There’s water there maybe waist-deep,” notes one of the rescuers.

Everyone admits that this is the first time such an operation has taken place in Pushcha. Usually, after a day or two, mushroom pickers lost in the Pushcha are found.

Parents went to psychics

The house where the family of the missing boy lives is located 20 meters from the forest. The windows of the house look directly onto the school stadium. And the residential area is separated from the forest by a narrow country road. The family now does not want to communicate with outsiders.

“You know, they have so many interrogations, searches every day, no news. It’s better not to go to them. It’s hard for us, and it’s even harder for them,” explains the director of the local school.

We are wondering if maybe the family was provided with a psychologist?

“For them now, the best psychologists are their neighbors. They help and support,” says the director.

According to her, the mother has now begun to turn to psychics in the hope that at least they will help find at least some clue. The staff of teachers and students live in horror all week. The village began searching on the evening of September 16th.

"No one could have thought that they couldn’t be found at night. They thought that maybe he had fallen asleep. Now every night it’s more and more scary for the child. It started to rain, and you wake up and feel like these drops are falling on you. And you keep thinking, “How is Maxim,” the woman shares her worries.

The school spent the entire week searching. As the director adds, she went to the forest every day until Thursday. Now she has been assigned to do organizational work.

The school provides overnight accommodation for soldiers and volunteers, people come here to dry wet clothes, space for equipment, and an open kitchen.

Maxim walked 10 kilometers through the forest

Most search participants are confident that the child is alive. True, many locals are skeptical about the version of the headquarters and law enforcement officers.

“He couldn’t have gotten lost in the forest. Anyone, but not Maxim,” the older man takes a drag on a cigarette and begins to talk about why the village does not agree with the police version.

“He gets up in the morning, even before the roosters, and goes into the forest. He’s such a lively guy. He picks up mushrooms and runs onto the road to sell them,” says a resident of Novy Dvor.

According to him, Maxim spent a lot of time in the forest. He often walked through the forest to the neighboring village of Novoselki, where his own grandmother lives. I've never been confused.

“He is very nimble. He can fold a hut in a few minutes. He even walked to Teraspol (which is about 5 kilometers from Novy Dvor - Sputnik) and back. I don’t know who, I told him about it myself,” says Maxim’s friend Kirill.

The guys believe that the boy could easily have found shelter in the forest. According to them, there are many secret places in the Pushcha. They remembered about some dugout.

They had already heard from adults that the boy could have been frightened by bison. They say that sometimes these animals were seen going out to the outskirts of the village, towards the school fence.

“Maxim is timid. He even stuttered. Yes, he could have been scared of the bison,” “He’s hungry there, and that makes a person go stupid,” the guys reason among themselves.

The main danger is cold and dehydration

“The main version is that Maxim got lost in the forest. There are a lot of assumptions, people come up with a lot of things, they say that they saw the child. But they are not confirmed by anything,” said the head of the Grodno search and rescue team “Center Spas” Alexander Kritsky.

Head of the Grodno search and rescue team "Center Spas" Alexander Kritsky

“If it is closed meter by meter, and if the version of the headquarters is not confirmed, other questions will arise. But I know for sure that the police are working in all directions,” adds Sergei Kovgan, head of the Angel search and rescue team.

Rescuers told us what the main dangers await a child who spent 9 days in the forest.

“First of all, dehydration, hypothermia, on these days when the search took place, the temperature was warm. But at night it was quite cool. If you don’t find shelter, you can freeze,” says Kritsky.

As a result of a large-scale search operation that took place on September 23 and 24, the boy could not be found. The search will continue.

Let us remind you that 10-year-old Maxim Markhaluk went into the forest on the evening of September 16, his whereabouts are still unknown. The search for the child has been going on for 10 days; last week he was put on a nationwide wanted list.