The Lithuanian documentary filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravičius was killed a month ago in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol. His fiancée says she wants the whole world to know his fate.
Kvedaravičius was in Africa working on a new film, but the filming was interrupted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The filmmaker and his Ukrainian fiancée Hanna Bilobrova decided to go to Mariupol, the setting of his eponymous earlier documentary.
Their plan was not only to bring supplies to the people hiding from bombing and unable to leave the city but also to film a sequel to Kvedaravičius’ documentary called Mariupol.
Kvedaravičius arrived in Mariupol with Bilobrova on March 19, but he soon disappeared. According to the woman, she searched the city for several days, asking Russian soldiers to help her find her fiancé until she finally heard from one of them about his death.
“He slowed down the car, and I ran over and said: Do you know anything? Have you heard anything? Did you ask your soldiers? He didn’t blink. Then he says: Your husband is dead. Without blinking, with a cold stare. I ask: How? Was he released or what? He says: No, my soldiers saw a civilian lying in the street, wearing a blue jacket.”
According to Bilobrova, it was only two days later that a soldier carrying out an order from this officer brought her to Kvedaravičius’ body.
“I was sitting in the back seat, and through the side window, I saw Mantas lying there. We were already driving, and I didn’t immediately realise what was happening. And as if in slow motion. I’m trying to understand. I can’t, I can’t,” she recalls.
“I looked again. I started knocking on the driver’s door, saying: stop, stop, stop the car. But he didn’t stop. He turned behind the building where the area officer was sitting. He coldly asked me: Yours? But he knew that yes, he was my man.”
According to Bilobrova, Kvedaravičius was not killed at the place where he was found because there was no blood on the ground. According to her, he was shot in the abdomen.
On April 9, the Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsperson, Lyudmila Denisova, said that Kvedaravičius had been captured by “rashists”, a term used in Ukraine to assert that Russia has turned into a fascist country. They then allegedly shot Kvedaravičius and dumped his body on the street.
Based on the account of a Ukrainian man, who was detained with him, Bilobrova believes that the soldiers fighting on the Russian side shot Kvedaravičius on suspicion that he was an undercover sniper from Lithuania, a NATO country. As proof that he had fired a weapon, the soldiers held up a bruise found on his shoulder, which could in fact have come from carrying a backpack.
“Normally, if you go with a white flag, nobody will kill you. But this is a different war. For example, we had bulletproof vests, but we couldn’t use them. We hid them because if the Russian army had seen them in our car or anywhere else, we would have been killed. If they saw the red cross on our car, the same thing – we would be attacked. So, you have to be 'naked' there,” she says.
Kvedaravičius’ body was brought to Lithuania four days after it was found, and he was buried on April 9 in his native Biržai.
“I want the whole world to know that he was murdered. And his killing shows how terrible this war is,” says Bilobrova.
In an interview with the news agency Reuters, Bilobrova said she wants to finish the film her fiancé started. She has footage showing people in a shelter, too afraid to retreat from Mariupol through dangerous areas.
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