On the night of April 16, Tuapse was attacked by Ukrainian drones. This was the first in a series of large-scale attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces on the Tuapse oil refinery and the Rosneft marine terminal, leading to an environmental disaster in the city.
Krasnodar region authorities male60 residential buildings, mostly private, but also several apartment buildings, were damaged during the attack. One of the drones hit the family home of Tatiana and Andrei Bokov on Sochinskaya Street – directly into the room of their youngest daughter, 14-year-old Valeria Bokova. After the explosion and fire, only rubble remained of the house.
“I heard an explosion behind the mountain. My bed is right next to the window. I leaned down to see what was happening there. I saw a drone flying over the neighbor’s house. It is flying slowly, sparks are flying. It may have already been hit. It fell directly into the house. To the place where they had a hall. There was an explosion, the glass flew, my window was shattered. I hear screams: ‘Help, help.’ He said A neighbor of the Bokov family told 93.ru journalists what happened.
Immediately after the attack, Veniamin Kondratiev prosecuted AnnounceThat the girl died. Investigation Committee Agreed A criminal case was opened for a terrorist attack. The media wrote that the Bokov family includes participants in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Lera’s father and older brother fought at the front. Brother died.
Rescuers and volunteers spent three straight days clearing rubble on Sochinskaya Street. At some point, from under the rubble of the house I got it The body of the living cat Lera Bokova was never found. Many experts and local media sources have put forward assumptions: the explosion that occurred in the Bokov family home was so powerful that there may not be any remains.
Authorities contacted the LisaAlert search team for assistance. This also did not yield results. “We conducted research activities there in the early days.” He said To the correspondent of the “Taki Dila” newsletter, the detachment’s press secretary, Rima Ohanian. —When the attack occurred, all the city forces were withdrawn to the place, and there was chaos there. Our best dog team went there, and in addition, our men examined the area. Based on their work, we eventually completed our activities.
The investigative committee, with which LisaAlert works directly, issued an official conclusion that the girl was dead. The representative of the detachment added: “If the authorities involve us, we will participate, of course, but at the moment we do not see the goal… If we have at least 1% lead, we will drag researchers from all over the country there.”
Bokov’s family was not deterred by the authorities’ findings. Relatives spread trends around town, continuing to hope for a miracle. The charity Ratiburets, which collects targeted assistance to participants in the war against Ukraine, joined the search.
On April 24, the girl’s mother, Tatiana Bokova, made a public statement in front of the cameras. She said she did not believe the authorities’ official story. According to the mother, Lira had enough time to escape during the explosion, and in a state of emotion she was able to escape from the burning house and hide in the forest.
“Personally, I went to see her at 2:05 and turned on the light because the lights were out. At 2:40, my husband and I left the hallway. There was no way the baby could get past us. We went to our room… It had literally been 15-17 minutes since this explosion happened. Our room was full. While we were cleaning everything up, the baby had the opportunity to escape.” to talk Tatiana Bokova.
She also claimed that none of the investigators in Tuapse even summoned her for interrogation, and that the decision about her daughter’s death “came from Moscow from above.” She added in favor of the narrative that Lyra might be hiding somewhere in the surrounding area: After her daughter disappeared, “someone tried to call someone from her phone.” But investigators allegedly just ignored this information.
“Rateburets” supported the parents’ version that Lyra may have suffered shell shock or even lost her memory due to stress, but she is still alive and hiding somewhere. The volunteers did not stop searching; They explored nearby abandoned houses, a cemetery and the forest belt and posted video reports daily.
So, they reported that they found a barefoot footprint in the woods, consistent with the size 36 worn by Lyra. Then they said that a Ratiborites drone equipped with a thermal imager recorded Lyra’s movements in the forest. But when search engines reached the site, no one was there, and the helicopter was dead. Finally, after two weeks of searching, a Ratiborites employee reported that he saw the girl alive in the forest, but she pushed him away and fled. All these reports were later denied.
As a result, the activities of the “Rateborites” only angered the local population. They blamed the Fund’s employees for collecting money in parallel with the research operation and not allowing other volunteers to approach the operation.
“This is a nightmare! They don’t let the locals inspect! They come and are sent back. It’s no use for them to have people who know the area and the territory and know that there are no traces in the moss! We even called the police, and they told us: “We know everything about the ‘Ratiborets’, but we can’t do anything.” And after all, you understand: they are connected to these people, and you can’t touch these people…” Natalia said such things.
Some Tuapse residents believe it is possible that Lera was intimidated and hidden in a safe house, because “during the search, money is being collected.”
On May 3, Tatyana Bokova recorded a new video message. She said: “The investigation denied that she was dead. We provided a lot of evidence, but unfortunately I cannot publish it, this is prohibited by the investigation. Well, the police are always sitting there, doing paperwork, but we are looking for our daughter on our own.”
On May 6, three weeks after Lira’s disappearance, volunteers announced that they had changed their tactics and were no longer hopeful of finding the girl alive. “We are looking for the girl’s remains. They can be found in a fairly large radius after the explosion.” They said they. On May 9, “Rateburets” announced that it had stopped participating in the search for Lera Bokova.