The hero of the thriller movie “Bucha”, in a candid interview for PostPravda.Info, talks about how he managed to save 204 people from Russian occupation. Konstantin Gadauskas is a man who can be compared to the legendary Jan Karski, who informed the world about the Holocaust during the World War II. The Kazakh to whom hundreds of Ukrainian owes his life was an eyewitness of the crimes committed by the Russians in Bucha near Kiev in March 2022, at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. – I was afraid. But I also knew that I was not acting alone. That in fact it was not me who was doing it, but God was saving these people with my hands. That is why I asked everyone who got into my car to pray. Each of the 204 people did it and they all survived – says Gadauskas. Today is the premiere of the movie, which tells the story of his Gadauskas’s heroism.

Konstantin Gadauskas: the worst ones were the Pskovs

Piotr Kaszuwara, PostPravda.Info: Why did the Russians kill so many people in Bucha, Irpin, and Gostomel?

Konstantin Gadauskas: The ones I met were very ideological. In fact…they were ideological fascists. They didn’t kill because someone attacked them or forcibly opposed them. They murdered people for what they thought. For being Ukrainians.

Buryats? We hear about them the most often when we talk about the Bucha massacre.

No. The worst were the Pskovs. The 76th Air Assault Division of the Russian Federation. This is one of the oldest units in Russia. They fought during World War II, they went to Germany. In the 1990s, they took part in the Chechen wars, the annexation of Crimea, the war in Donbas, and in the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. They were also the ones who, together with a special unit of the KGB called Alfa, stormed the headquarters of the Vilnius Television in 1991. Earlier, in 1986, they murdered students, in January 2022 they took part in suppressing social protests in Kazakhstan, they were also at war in Georgia and participated in the Russian intervention in Transnistria, Moldova.

Exceptionally special tasks.

Absolutely. Random people don’t end up there. They are completely brainwashed. They are very devoted to the idea. Most of them are massive guys, two meters tall, huge. Most of them is definitely mental. They have no mercy, zero human instincts. They are the most terrifying soldiers I have ever seen in my life.

Are you sure they were in Bucha?

Yes. 100 percent. However they weren’t there from the very beginning. When the first units that came to the city started to panic, they sent the Pskovs. And at the very end they were the ones who were responsible for the deaths of the most civilians. They organized a safari. They drove around the streets and just shot at anyone, who crossed the road. Anyone who left their house for water, for food. Anyone. I saw a few of them. They had patches on their chests that said “I am a Russian occupier”.

And the war was just starting then.

And they came with a specific task to perform. They weren’t there to talk or discuss with anyone. Their first units reached Bucha, somewhere around March 20, 2022. Before that, it was actually mostly Buryats who were in the area. The Pskovs were retreating from Kiev, they were running away because they were starting to be surrounded by Ukrainians from the direction of Makarov. They were afraid that they would fall into a cauldron and everyone would die. And from what I know, General Zaluzhny really had such a plan. So on March 30, they started leaving other Russian units behind. Unfortunately, this is why the Pskovs unit escaped.

So when did they have time to kill people?

On March 28, the so-called “cleansing” of Irpin began. That is, the mass killing of Ukrainians. It lasted several days. Approximately from March 28th to March 30th. A few days later, the Armed Forces of Ukraine entered the city. Earlier, the HUR – the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine was there. They entered the area occupied by the enemy as the first ones.

“And here comes the Russians again…”

The journalists entered Irpin and Bucha on April 3.

Yes. On April 2, the SZU entered and after them many foreign correspondents were allowed to enter as well. The first to enter the scene, together with me, was a Ukrainian journalist from TSN and 1+1 – Alina Turyszyn. We were traveling in HUR escort. There were still Russians in the city who tried to fight, but our men quickly dealt with them. No one was taken prisoner.

Were you also involved in this, after everything you saw?

I had a gun with me. I also walked around the city looking for Russians, but I didn’t kill anyone. I didn’t want to have this rifle with me at all, but the soldiers told me: “Listen, if you meet them, they won’t ask you anything. Either you will kill them, or they will kill you.” Thank God, nothing like that happened. Maybe because I prayed not to have to shoot at anyone. My destiny is to save lives, not to take them away. My friends even laugh at me, saying that if I was needed in the army, I would immediately be sent to the security company and sent to buy gasoline for Ukrainian tanks from the Russians (laughter).

You have Lithuanian roots, but you spent most of your life in Kazakhstan. How did you end up living in Ukraine in 2019?

I had to flee the country. I was expelled and sentenced to banishment for opposing the pro-Russian government. I was a political dissident. In 2019, I supported Amirjan Kosanov in the elections. He was the main rival of the current president of the country, Kasim-Jomart Tokayev. Unfortunately, Kosanov let us all down and sold his presidency for $10 million. After the results were announced, he unabashedly congratulated Tokayev. It was so sad and unfortunate, because Kosanov had a chance to actually change Kazakhstan. He could have changed the history of his nation. If he had kept his word, Russia probably wouldn’t have been able to go to Ukraine, because it could have feared the stability of its borders. The border with Kazakhstan is one of the longest for the Russian Federation. The saddest thing in the recent history of my country is that it could have been done without bloodshed. Today, unfortunately it’s too late.

Do you have any chance to return home?

Certainly not now. I have a passport of a political refugee in Ukraine. Everything I had was taken away from me. And it was done by a man I trusted. Whom we believed wanted to change our country for the better. It all happened in one day. They stripped me of my property and said: “From now on, you are nobody.” My son-in-law was fired from his job, my sister was also fired. Investigations began on other members of my family and friends. This was the price we paid for the betrayal that Kosanov committed.

You found a new home in Ukraine.

I spent the first six months simply resting. I was devastated. I didn’t know what to do with myself. So I started sightseeing. Traveling around the country on various trips. Walking. And I found my place in Bucha. I bought myself an apartment I really wanted, founded a successful company that was involved in servicing charging stations for electric cars. I just put my life back together and the Russians came again.

And you were left with nothing.

Exactly! I lived like a human being for a few years. You know, sometimes I wonder what I’ll do when the war ends. My entire adult life has been a fight. I took 204 people out of Bucha, the Russians left, I thought – OK, now it’ll definitely be peaceful. And so for three years: if not drones, then anti-drone systems, radars, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, canned food, sweets, blankets, bandages, stoves, hats, I sew overalls for tankers in Germany, I deliver equipment to trenches, I pull cars for the army. Sometimes when I look at the accounts of our “Bucha Help” Foundation, I laugh that if it were a business, I would be a millionaire by now.

There was such an opportunity. One of the high-ranking officers of Ukrainian intelligence offered you a suitcase of money for saving his pregnant wife and three children from Russian occupation.

Yes. And I didn’t take it. I said that the lives of these people were worth much more and asked him to help me save more people. I offered to drive and take people out of Bucha. At first he didn’t want to agree, but I was drilling a hole in their stomachs. Later, HUR thought over this plan and thanks to them I knew the safe routes, I knew who and where was standing at the Russian checkpoints. I had fresh information about Russian positions.

Konstantin Gadauskas on the details of cooperation with the intelligence

Where?

From various places, but one of the sources was an elderly lady – Baba Taja, who sat on a bench in front of her house almost all the time. I brought her food, water, and returned with information, how many columns, what equipment. In her youth, she worked in the arms industry, so she knew exactly the names, caliber, firepower and was able to understand what was happening. So she sat and counted, and later told me what she saw.

Did she survive?

Yes. She lives near me.

Weren’t you afraid that eventually someone would figure out what you were doing and shoot you too?

I was afraid. But I also knew that I wasn’t acting alone. That in fact it wasn’t me doing it, it was God saving these people with my hands. That’s why I told everyone who got into my car to pray. Each of the 204 people did it and they all survived.

That’s a lot of people. If you always said you were taking your wife, children or grandfather, you would eventually run out of the stories.

Each evacuation was carefully thought out. I took different routes, sometimes I had to bribe the Russians with something. I had a ready and thought-out story for each family, for each person. I was helped to put them together by officers of Ukrainian intelligence.

It’s unbelievable that the Russians didn’t notice. They killed random people, but they didn’t touch you.

Because I had official permission from the colonel, the commander of the occupation, Artem Gorodylov.

Faith has a power

How on earth?

When I first went this way, the Russians wouldn’t let me pass. I started to resist them a bit and said I wanted to talk to the commander. Soon he arrived. I managed to convince him because I played on his pride. He considered himself a great representative of the mighty Russian nation. I played on him that way. He was also religious, so I also caught him reading the Bible. I said that we were both Christians and that the duty of Christians was to save lives. He bought it and let me act. I don’t know exactly why it worked. The power of God’s word has incredible power. I think God showed me that he knew who I was. That he knew me personally and didn’t let anyone lay a finger on me.

Have you ever been close to death?

More than once. I still wonder how much patience God still has. I remember the look in the eyes of those Russian soldiers I met in Bucha. They wanted to kill me so bad. You could see it in their eyes. But they didn’t have that kind of power. In Bucha, we defeated death.