The search for a child in Belovezhskaya Pushcha is the last. The disappearance of a boy in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Why are volunteers and not professionals doing searches?

More than two thousand people gathered in Belovezhskaya Pushcha on Saturday, who came with the only hope - to find 10-year-old Maxim Markhalyuk as soon as possible. The boy went into the forest to pick mushrooms on September 16 and has not yet returned. The bulk of the volunteers are ordinary Belarusians, who previously went to the forest only to pick mushrooms.

All volunteers were given bright vests for free

The correspondent joined one of the search groups and went into the forest.

We used to walk in droves, today the headquarters sets tasks

At 8 o'clock in the morning, a volunteer camp was set up at the school stadium in the village of Novy Dvor. Dozens of cars and hundreds of people gathered. Through a loudspeaker, everyone is invited to register in a blue tent in the center of the stadium.

Search operations headquarters deployed at local school stadium

“Indicate the name, surname, telephone number, registration number of the car. Write if you know how to read maps, navigate the forest, what equipment they brought. If you have no experience, don't worry, most of them are. We need everything ", - explain the volunteers and show where you can take a bright vest for free.

The lists are increasing by the minute. The geography of visitors is striking - Minsk, Gomel, Brest, Grodno, Mogilev, numerous regional centers. Most admit: “It’s the first time to look for a person”... But people are ready to go both into the forest and into the swamp - just to find the boy alive.

“During the week, while there was no headquarters, people went to the forest in a crowd, sometimes 180 people at a time. We work in smaller groups - from 10 to 30 people. It's more productive, it's better to close the territory. ", - says the head of the search and rescue squad "Center Spas" from Grodno Alexander Kritsky.

According to him, now the tasks are set by the headquarters. Registration is needed so that search managers know how many people they have at their disposal.

SUVs sent off-road

One of the first assignments was given to a group of guys in off-road vehicles. They have six cars and one ATV.

The guys on off-road vehicles were instructed to monitor difficult forest roads

“We represent the off-road jeep trial club“ Citadel ”from Brest. On Friday they screamed. Some arrived immediately, some today. Nobody remained indifferent. We took a thermal imager, a power plant, flashlights, searchlights, radio stations, the cars are equipped with navigators ", - says the commander of the mini-squad Pavel Stasyuk.

An experienced driver Evgeniy is driving the lead car. He is a truck driver, the day before he returned from a business trip abroad and immediately went to Pushcha. The team is studying a map that shows an area of ​​forest with a perimeter of about 40 kilometers. The headquarters instructed to bypass all roads and passages that are difficult to reach for ordinary cars in the indicated square.

“We have never looked for people, but we have a clear task. The experience of passing impassable places on off-road, through swamps on off-road vehicles will help, and this is already a big deal "- says the elder.

Searches are also going on in the protected area of ​​the reserve "Belovezhskaya Pushcha"

Experience was needed as soon as we turned onto a wild forest path. There are pits, deep puddles, bumps on it, sometimes fallen young trees or branches block the passage.

"Look carefully around, suddenly something flashes, maybe today we will be lucky and we will see the boy", - advises Paul.

In the area allotted to us, the cars parted to the sides to monitor all the small passages. Communication takes place only by radio, since communication is only in rare villages.

Checking pipes, basements, looking for beds

The team set up to work until dark. Everyone believes that the boy is alive, but he is just hiding somewhere. Yesterday, the guys all day in the same area of ​​the forest examined abandoned houses, farms, basements and sheds.

“Yesterday my shoes got wet, but I didn't take a replacement one. I wrote in the "Angel" group, and completely strangers boots and a raincoat were sent from Pinsk. Who could not come, at least support us this way ", - says the girl Anya from Mogilev.

The team also includes two experienced Mogilev industrial climbers. At first, the headquarters wanted to send them to inspect the deep mines that exist on the territory of the Pushcha. But on the spot there was no necessary equipment, and the guys did not take their own.

A group of volunteers examines a stack of straw in which a boy could make a bed

"Stop, the pipe is under the road - take a look", - commands Pavel.

You even need to check animal feeders, fallen trees, huts and huts. During one of the stops, we found crumpled grass under a bush. It turned out that there was a large animal lying here. A little later we saw a woman's jacket rolled up in a roller. An abandoned booth was discovered in the neighborhood, but no one had appeared in it for a long time. “There are hundreds of such shelters in the forest. I think the child knows them well ", - suggests the commander.

The search party needs to look into every abandoned building, barn or basement

After each failure, the guys sigh, someone jokes: “We'll find - the kid should be sent to the special forces. The whole country is looking for him, but he hides so skillfully. ".

They want to take the child into the ring

As we drove through the forest, the team saw a change in how we search. From the very morning, soldiers with dogs and employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were standing along the main roads.

“We cordoned off the forest around the village. They want to take the guy in the ring. If they manage to organize all the civilians, then maybe they can find them. ", - argue in the team.

The military is on duty on the main roads since the morning

In a few hours there were more people in the forest. The volunteers who stood at the school stadium a few hours ago, now we saw in the woods on the site closer to the Novy Dvor. Some are in chains of groups that comb the forest meter by meter, others are on the side of the road, and still others are checking a large stack of straw in the field. The attendants tiredly trampled, someone burned a fire, someone managed to pick up mushrooms.

As Alexander Kritskiy explained, each search group “closes” the forest square assigned to it, people walk along a certain azimuth and comb the forest.

Simple volunteers under the guidance of experienced coordinators who know how to use navigation, a compass, know cartography, can lead a group of people and make sure that none of the team is left behind or lost. All work according to a certain algorithm approved by the operational headquarters.

Each team receives such maps on which the search area is marked

Maxim was seen, but the headquarters does not believe

After combing a new section of the forest, the team in off-road vehicles stopped in one of the villages. The guys immediately looked into the old basement. Many of the team do not really understand why they were sent to travel on the roads. After all, if the boy hid, then he is unlikely to come out, having heard the hum of cars. But that hope appeared.

“Some of the volunteers saw a boy cross the road near the village of Teraspol, four kilometers from his home. A soldier slipped through the cordon ", - share latest news guys from one of the cars. This means that the child did not go into the thicket, but keeps to the road, you can see him by chance.

A little later, the headquarters assured that these were only rumors. But the volunteers in the camp kept repeating: “The child was seen both on Saturday and during the week, he picked mushrooms in the meadow”.

“Hold on muesli, Snickers, we need to eat more sweets. We have coffee and energy drinks with us. We are in the forest, spending a lot of energy ", - Anya advises.

The girl was on her feet for the second day, very tired, did not get enough sleep. She had to spend the night in the school building in sleeping bag... She says that the school gave shelter to all comers, many were taken for the night by local residents.

During the day - people, at night - drones with thermal imagers

In total, more than two thousand people received the task from the headquarters. Most left for the forest in the morning, but during the day new groups of new arrivals formed.

“Three helicopters from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and autogyros were involved. During the day, divers worked to survey the water bodies and marshlands closest to the village. The headquarters works around the clock, but people go to the forest only during daylight hours. ", - says the representative of the operational headquarters from the Grodno Department of Internal Affairs Alexander Shastailo.

Alexander Shastailo, representative of the operational headquarters from the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee

Drones with thermal imagers fly over the area every night. So far, the search has not returned any results.

According to the Angel search and rescue squad, volunteers are still needed in Novy Dvor, as well as help. ordinary people who can donate money to a charity account, donate things, water or food.

What the volunteer camp needs can be found at official page"Angela" in social networks.

Volunteers and those who are just getting ready to come are advised to have a reflective vest, if possible, a whistle and a flashlight, a spare set of clothes, several pairs of socks, rubber boots or other suitable footwear for wet forests and swamps. Gathering - at the school stadium. Departure of groups for searches is scheduled at 9.00, 12.00 and 15.00. It is advised to arrive one hour before departure. A field kitchen works at the gathering place of search teams.

10-year-old who disappeared in Belovezhskaya Pushcha Maxim Markhalyuk are looking for the ninth day. The boy went into the forest to pick mushrooms on the evening of September 16 and has not yet returned. In addition to the police officers, fighters from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, soldiers, volunteers of search and rescue teams, and the local population joined in the search for the child.

Maxim Markhalyuk, according to residents of the village of Novy Dvor, has often said for the past three years that he wants to leave home.

Maxim Markhalyuk, who disappeared in the forest, has been thinking about running away from home, and for a long time. The residents of the village of Novy Dvor tell about this, in the surrounding forests of which they have been looking for a 10-year-old boy for the second week. Many are sure: the child was not lost, but deliberately left home.

Why go to the forest at night looking?

“I saw Maxim in the village on Saturday. At five o'clock in the evening. I was in the forest before. Came out, and here Maxim is going. I told him: "Do not be afraid, Maxim, Rex does not bite." And he says, they say, "I'm not afraid",- says a resident of Novy Dvor Valentina Alexandrovna, Maxim was friends with her son and often came to visit them.

According to Sputnik's interlocutor, her friend said that on the same day, but after 7 pm, she saw Maxim skating in the center of the village. And then - as if he fell through the ground, everyone said that he had gone into the forest. But the woman is sure that going to the forest so late is not like Maxim. After all, at eight o'clock in the evening at this time of the year it is already getting dark, and the boy would not want to go into the darkness.

A resident of the village of Novy Dvor Valentina Aleksandrovna, the missing Maxim was friends with her son

“He was so a little cowardly. I was even afraid of my puppy. When he came to us, he usually stands near the gate and calls: "Ilyusha!" or "Aunt Valya!" And I will go out and take him into the house. And to go to the forest at night for him is unlikely, ”

Many in the village agree that if the child had been in the forest that evening, he would have been found. After all, the search began immediately and continued even at night. And a child wandering through the night forest could not go far.

Made plans to escape for three years

The villagers assume that the boy could be very frightened of something. And not bison, but, for example, the impending punishment for some offense. "Maybe he was scared of his parents?"- the neighbors argue and tell one telling example.

Last year, for some reason, Maxim went to the lake alone, without his parents, went for a swim and almost drowned. He was rescued by people resting nearby. On that day, his parents punished him very severely, they say they even beat him.

Rumor has it that then the boy, either seriously, or out of resentment, said to his parents: “I will not live with you and will run away anyway. You don't buy me anything, everything is for Sasha(older brother - Sputnik) ”.

Militia, Emergencies Ministry, volunteers and local residents are looking for ten-year-old Maxim Markhalyuk

In the village, the words of Maxim's own grandmother are also transmitted, who told how a grandson several years ago, when he was 7 or 8 years old, said: “I’ll get out of the house anyway”... Grandma to him: "You will be found"... And he: "They will not find, I will go to the swamps"... And then he periodically said that he had such a plan.

Another resident of Novy Dvor, Tatyana Petrovna, said that the child in recent times has changed.

“Maxim has been friends with my grandson since the age of five. Always together when he's on vacation. And this year, the grandson said that he would no longer be friends. That Maxim began to smoke, behaved differently. Maybe it's teenage. I regret that I didn’t tell my parents right away, it was my grandson who asked me not to tell anyone, ”- recalls the villager.

At the same time, the woman emphasizes several times that Maxim's family is very positive, prosperous, and the parents are hardworking.

Could leave

The main version, which residents of Novy Dvor are inclined to believe, is that Maxim left for another area, and he did it the same evening or the next morning.

The child most likely had money. Even local children say that it is very easy to earn them in Pushcha. For example, you can sell berries or mushrooms.

And everyone characterizes Maxim as a very lively and purposeful boy. It is said that he often went to the forest.

Tatyana Petrovna argues: “We searched so many times with thermal imagers, walked with dogs, and how many people passed through the forest at the weekend. Ours are constantly walking. If the boy had been here, they would have found at least some traces ".

Tatyana Petrovna, a resident of the village of Novy Dvor, says that Maxim's family is very positive, prosperous

Rumors that in different time saw the child in the forest, then on the road, the neighbors consider it to be fictions. And they immediately ask: “If you saw a child, why didn't you catch up? Adults are people. But it turns out that they saw and allowed to leave. "

Many locals constantly go to the forest on their own to look for Maxim.

“The soul hurts for the boy and the family. We also do not sleep at night. Every day, day and evening, I go to the forest, I call him. And now I am going too, maybe something will be found ”,- adds Valentina Aleksandrovna.

Recall that Maksim Markhalyuk disappeared on September 16, was put on the national wanted list. On September 26, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case into the child's disappearance. Maxim has not yet been found. The main version of the police is that the boy got lost in the forest.

Maxim Markhalyuk has not yet been found in Pushcha, searches continue on Wednesday

Now a parallel version of the disappearance of the child is being worked out - he could have left home, so groups are sent to check nearby villages and buildings on abandoned farms.

The 10-year-old Maxim Markhalyuk, who disappeared in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in the Svisloch region, has not yet been found, the Angel search and rescue team reported.

The boy disappeared without a trace in the forest near the village of Novy Dvor on September 16, since then, not only numerous volunteers have been looking for him, but also employees of the local forestry enterprise, employees of the Svisloch District Department of Internal Affairs and the Belarusian Society of the Red Cross, as well as rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

“At 00:00 on September 27, the boy was not found. Over the past day, no traces or any signs of the boy's presence were found, ”- reported to the PSO.

As previously reported by Sputnik, the department of the Investigative Committee for the Grodno Region opened a criminal case on the fact of the loss of a child in the forest.

According to the information of the PSO “Angel”, a parallel version of the disappearance of the child is now being worked out - he could have left home, so groups are sent to check nearby villages and buildings on abandoned farms.

CAMP, around 9 am

In total, on Saturday, September 23, about a thousand volunteers from all over Belarus gathered here. It is cold and cloudy in the morning, everyone is worried that there is no rain. All have reflective vests, which are given out for free. Someone wraps their legs with cellophane and tape.

The camp of volunteers and search and rescue squad "Angel" is located on the territory of the school stadium. Here they distribute food, pour hot tea and coffee, give out water and something to eat. All this is done by volunteers. People transfer whole packages of cereals, stew, instant mashed potatoes, coffee, tea, sugar, water. The school and the local executive committee allowed the use of their premises, including the kitchen and the toilet, on weekends, but only until 4 pm, then they are closed.

Here volunteers are sent to search. Each group has 20 to 80 people, depending on how large the areas they will be checking. In addition to volunteers, the detachment always has representatives of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and foresters.

The entire area around the village is divided into squares to make it easier to distribute them for testing. Volunteers are sent to check only the forest, rescuers and the military are engaged in swamps, and divers are engaged in reservoirs.

Every now and then they announce over the speakerphone that they are looking for experienced trackers, hunters, or at least just those who know how to use a compass and navigate a map among the volunteers. Unfortunately, "Angel" was not ready for such an influx of volunteers, and they did not have the required number of coordinators, radios and ammunition.

Helicopters of the Ministry of Emergency Situations fly overhead, they circle over the forest all day trying to spot a boy among the trees. At night, they also check the surrounding area with a thermal imager. However, until now, searches have yielded nothing.

Everyone feels impatient before going out into the forest and a little excitement. Someone has been here since Friday, someone has just arrived. But everyone is cheerful, they drink coffee from plastic cups discussing the latest rumors.

Rumors spread quickly here and are often completely untrue. Allegedly, somewhere they saw a boy at the edge of the forest, but he, noticing the volunteers, ran away, or that from the helicopter they saw a guy who was hiding among the trees. All these conversations and rumors are not confirmed in any way and are most often officially refuted, but this does not prevent people from believing in them.

I get into a squad of 80 people. We have only 8 coordinators and three radios. The coordinators are young boys and girls, 25 years old, from the regional branches of the Angel search unit.

We were assigned to cars, we leave in a given square in a column.

ROAD, about 10 am

Finding ourselves in an old UAZ of the regional MChS, we, bouncing on the pits, head towards the desired area of ​​the forest. Driving through the village, one of the rescuers notices:

Look, the locals don't care anymore, some newcomers are involved in the search.

Well, what, life goes on, and the potatoes are not harvested and the mushrooms flooded like mad.

They brought in people from two areas. I heard that the special forces of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and soldiers drove the swamp to check. And yesterday, all night long over the forest, the helicopters circled with a thermal imager, they say, they found a couple of points, then they sent us there. And nifig was not there.

What about volunteers?

The volunteers were not touched, only us. We are state people, we can be, we are paid.

The conversation is interrupted, and they begin to discuss the volunteers:

Have you heard what they said today? Drive the guy like a "beast".

Yes, they have sunk, he is already like a beast for everyone. They want to drive him out of the forest like an animal.

Look at them, all with knives, they are not ashamed of anything.

Well, what did you want, everyone is told that there are lynxes and wolves. We have a trot on every tree, which strives to jump on someone.

SEARCH, around 11 am

Our square turns out to be five kilometers from the village.

A line of 80 people is lined up along the road. It stretches for 400 meters. There is a coordinator every 10 volunteers. But there are only three radios, two on the sides of the chain and one in the center. During the briefing, they explain how to move, when to stop, what to check and what to pay attention to.

In the forest, a chain of people is constantly breaking, someone runs forward, someone, on the contrary, lags behind, then scatter from each other, then huddle together. Most of the volunteers are participating in the search for the first time, they are inexperienced, willful and believe that they know how to do it right. The larger the group, the more difficult it is to coordinate it, and if there are few radio sets, it is almost impossible.

We move forward slowly, stop often, this annoys many. From time to time, disputes break out with the coordinators, someone does not like the way they lead.

“Vanya, turn off this radio and go as we go, we will not stop, otherwise we’ll walk one kilometer all day,” the guy with the Ivatsevichi Ultras inscription on his T-shirt is indignant. - Did these coordinators even graduate from school? Or at least the army? They picked up the ads. "

Vanya does not listen to him, although he is angry and quarrels with the coordinators. People move forward, but after a minute they stop again.

We pass the first section of the forest, we leave on the field. People scattered so far from each other that the last ones came out of the forest ten minutes after the first appeared. We walked a little over a kilometer, and it took about half an hour. Searches in this square yielded nothing. The coordinators decide to split into several small groups of 20-30 people and check smaller areas.

Local MChSniki leave after the first searches. Like, they had an order to check only this forest and they are returning to the base for further instructions. We will see them only in the evening, when we return to the base, they will lie sluggishly on the grass and rest.

“It's very difficult when there are a lot of locals in the squadron. He has been collecting mushrooms in these forests for 25 years and believes that he knows how to find the right way, such people constantly need to be persuaded to do something, it takes time and effort that could be directed to the search, ”one of the coordinators shares his opinion ...

Our squad was divided into three smaller groups. One went to pass the forest in the opposite direction towards the cars. The other two went off to check the small groves.

We walk across the field to a clean pine forest. The wind blows through it, there are no bushes here, only moss and tall pines. There is nowhere to hide.

A jacket is found at the edge of the grove child size, which spiders have already managed to inhabit and make small cobwebs there, shoes are lying nearby. And although the jacket and boots do not fit the description, some people start playing detectives:

That is, you think it's normal, - asks one of the girls, who loves to voice various "terrible" versions of what happened to the missing boy, - that some children's clothes are just lying around in the forest?

What do you think there is some kind of pagan cult at work here, like in "True Detective"? one of the volunteers convinces her.

The girl pauses, but clearly remains unsatisfied. The coordinators take pictures of the jacket and boots, mark the location on the map and move on. Having passed the pine forest, we again find ourselves on the field. Now we unite with the second group from our squad. The people who went to the cars did not return.

In the distance, on the outskirts of the forest, a figure in a red vest is visible. According to the descriptions, the guy was just like that. The coordinators send one of their own to check. It turns out that this is one of the military.

We enter another grove, a continuous windbreak. And then shouts from somewhere on the side:

"AAA, *****, ******* MOTHER, AAAAA!"

The crackling of branches is heard, someone from the thicket breaks through to the field without disassembling the road. Well, everything, I think, ran into a bear. A roe deer flies out of the forest and jumps away from us.

Mikhail, over 30 years old, an experienced hunter, came here from Grodno, says that his ten-year-old son was eager with him, but, fortunately, he did not take him and does not regret:

“The guys and I talked here and came to a common opinion: our search is not so much the hope of finding him alive, but generally learning about his fate. It is unlikely that he is still alive. Because it cannot be so that so many people have been looking for him for more than a week and could not find anything. "

Towards evening we set off on the return journey. After checking a few more areas of the forest, we go out onto the road and are already walking along it.

“This is the first time in our memory such a complex and massive search. Usually, we have 30-40 people at most involved in the search, but this time the numbers go already into the thousands. Of course, the organization is chaotic, no one with such big amount I didn't care about people, ”says the coordinator. “We had a search and for five days, when my grandmother got lost in the forest, we then found her alive, slept peacefully in some hollow, and all these days she ate berries and plants.”

We return to the cars. During almost seven hours of searching, we found several unidentified tracks, several jackets, one of which is for children, and old shoes in size 40 that hardly belonged to a 10-year-old boy. According to representatives of the "Angel" detachment, other groups also did not find anything. The boy disappeared, as if he was swallowed by the Belarusian chton.

CAMP, around 6 pm

In the meantime, life is in full swing in the camp. They brought hot food. Everyone was tired, in the cobweb, in the mud, despite the fact that the weather was warm and there was no rain, the forest was damp and there were many puddles. The school closed and closed the volunteers' access to water, electricity and toilets. Fortunately, during this time we managed to bring up the dry closets. The water was heated on portable gas stoves and kettles, connected to a single gasoline generator.

During this time, a Belkoopsoyuz shop appeared in the camp. Someone volunteering and free help, and someone business.

Towards 19 o'clock, the military arrived with a field kitchen and provided the camp with hot food. Those who have been here since Friday are about to leave, but new ones are taking their place. Most spend the night in cars, some in tents or lodging with locals. Why the school could not provide at least a gym for the night is not clear, especially since there are no classes on weekends anyway.

There will be no sorties at night. The Ministry of Emergency Situations plans to once again check the entire forest using a thermal imager on helicopters. This search, like the previous ones, will yield nothing.

In the evening I am leaving in a passing car back to Minsk. Many stay for the second day, but few hope to find the guy alive.

We drive to the main street of the agro-town Novy Dvor, local residents stand near their fences, looking at the cars of the volunteers. The sun is setting. Tomorrow there will be new searches, which will also bring nothing. And life for all others will continue.

Grandmother heard crying in the forest, found someone's footprints in the swamp, psychics see that the child is alive, but it is difficult for him to move. Why does the search for an 11-year-old schoolchild not yield results, and is there any chance of salvation at all? The search for the boy is overgrown with new mystical rumors, which cannot be confirmed.

The VG journalist went on a night search for the missing Maxim Markhalyuk and saw the activities of the search teams from the inside.

The boy took refuge in the old house

For four days the whole country has been following the search for 11-year-old Maxim, who got lost in Belovezhskaya Pushcha on Saturday, September 16. The trouble of a rural family consolidated the entire Belarusian society - perhaps in the history of a sovereign country, this is the first time when people abandon all their affairs and rush into the forest as volunteers, and those who cannot pray for Maxim. They even created a petition on the Internet to oblige the media to make the main news about the missing people.

During the days of searching, the fate of the boy was overgrown with rumors and even legends. People retell them in search engine groups. check everything, even the most crazy ideas. A grandmother from a neighboring village went to pick mushrooms and heard crying. Another witch woman said that the child was thirsty, he was alive, but his legs hurt. A psychic from abroad, contacted by people via the Internet, said that the boy would be found on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, another version appeared from a Bulgarian clairvoyant that the boy found refuge in an old house under a roof, next to a road, many dogs and other animals. There is a large puddle of water nearby, Maxim is scared and his arm hurts.

A Tuesday afternoon search, which involved police, foresters and volunteers, was unsuccessful. But the search and rescue teams do not give up and invite volunteers for night searches. In the group of the TsentrSpas search and rescue squad, we write that we are leaving Grodno and are ready to take two more people with us. Not even five minutes have passed before a girl wants to go in search of us with us and very much asks to wait until she picks up the children from training. We agree to pick it up at Olshanka. Zhanna, 30, is a mother of two. When asked why she goes to the forest for the night, she briefly answers: "My son is 9 years old." Everything becomes clear.

Read in full in the source with a photo:

The 110-kilometer road to Novy Dvor takes almost two hours. Participation in the search is the first for us, but, despite our inexperience, we are sure that we will come in handy. On the way, we imagine that we will now arrive at the village council, where there will be a search headquarters and well-organized work, that in a few minutes we will be divided into groups and sent to search. But the picture looks different ...

There is no headquarters, no premises, no lighting. No a single leader, to which information from the police, forestry enterprises, schoolchildren and volunteers would flock. The feeling that everyone who is looking for Maxim works separately and does not try to interact with anyone. The village council is locked, and people are standing in groups in the parking lot. There are many camouflaged people here. Volunteers, on average, look about 30. Men smoke cigarettes one by one, drink an energy drink and are silent. The girls are also silent. Cars drive up to the village council, tired people come out from there and shrug their hands guiltily - nothing.

Other volunteers argue with the commanders of the search parties and rush into the forest. Local residents, some of them already drunk, offer to go there. The conversation is held in high tones. Men are not ashamed of the presence of girls and swear loudly - these days of searches have exhausted people, and their nerves are just at the limit. We change clothes and talk about our willingness to help.

Read in full in the source with a photo:

- Guys, let's wait for our group from the swamp and then decide, - Christina soothes everyone. In the afternoon, information appeared that traces were found near the swamp. The search engines rushed to the place with the thermal imager, but found nothing. Then, in their minibus equipped for searches, the guys from the "Angel" squadron shone through the forest with strong searchlights and tried to designate themselves with noise in the hope that the child would see the light or hear a sound and walk towards it.

Knock on any hut - you will be accepted for the night

We wait impatiently, but then the bus pulls into the village council and exhausted people tumble out of the car. It seems that they have not slept for several nights, and all this time they spend on their feet. But the search again brought nothing. Commander Sergei Kovgan went to the volunteers and said that all the rumors and clues had not come true. The commander admits that there are not enough coordinators for the search who could guide people.

- At night in the forest you have nothing to do, you just get lost, and in the morning we will have to look for you already, - Sergey explains. - Whoever stays for the night and continues to search in the morning, let him go to rest. Sleep in cars or knock on any hut, you will be accepted for the night. Those who have work tomorrow and are ready to work now will receive assignments.

They give us fragments of a map of the area, name the villages and ask us to check all the abandoned buildings, stacks of straw, in a word, all those places where the boy could hide for the night.

The main beam of the car snatches out a dirt road, along which field mice and foxes run across. The forest is getting thicker. The night is starry, but dark, and, as luck would have it, there is no moon.

The child was found, but lost again?

The first village of Shubichi does not look abandoned: lights are on in the houses, on the street there are lanterns that are visible from afar. We pass through the village and find nothing. We drive further to the village of Bolshaya Kolonaya, turn off the engine and turn off the headlights. Houses are plunged into darkness. There is no wind, no rustle, only in the distance, somewhere in the forest, an elk screams very scary. It becomes creepy for us, we imagine what it is like for him, for Maxim, there, in the forest, where there are only wild animals around ...

A flashlight of light snatches out an abandoned house. The walls rotted and the roof fell to the ground - not a bad place to sleep! We crawl inside, we see the straw, but there is no one else. And why should the boy hide if he went out to the village. Here, knock on any house - they will immediately help, because the whole country is closely watching the searches and is waiting for news.

Our night searches in Stasyutichi and Zalesnaya are also unsuccessful. There is no boy along the stream flowing from the Belovezhskaya Pushcha: we assumed that the child should hold on to the water, this is his chance for salvation ...

We call the number "Angel" 7733, report on the results and go to Grodno. On the way home, information appears that the child has been found. We dial the phone number, the woman says that the school said that the child went to some village at 21.40. This news gives hope until the morning, but on Wednesday neither the police nor the search engines found Maxim. It seems that during these four days the whole village has gone mad with grief.

The search for Maxim continues. In groups of search groups, volunteers write about their intentions to come again. Drivers in cars talk about free seats and call to join. The feeling that this search will never end ... They pray for Maxim and believe that they will find him alive.

"We don’t go to Pushcha once again." How Novy Dvor lives a year after the disappearance of Maxim Markhalyuk48 September 16, 2018 at 12:38 PMExactly a year ago, on September 16, 2017, Maxim Markhalyuk disappeared in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. At first, the police and local residents were looking for him, and then volunteers joined the search. Unfortunately, the boy was never found. A year later, TUT.BY visited Novy Dvor. Reportage

More than a thousand people were searched for in the forests in Belarus for five years, 37 could not be found15 July 18, 2018 at 03:39 PMOver the past five years, more than 1,000 people have been searched for in the forests in Belarus, said Dmitry Kryukov, head of the search organization department of the Main Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, BelTA informs.

TRK Mir explained how the photo of Maxim Markhalyuk got into the fictional story in the program. Editor fired20 June 7, 2018 at 11:16 PMThe photo of the missing Maxim Markhalyuk appeared in the "Family Matters" program on the "Mir" TV channel. It was used to illustrate a fictional story of controversial paternity in the Family Matters program. Now the TV channel is trying to figure out how this could have happened.

The photo of the missing Maxim Markhalyuk was used in a fictional story on the Mir TV channel44 June 7, 2018 at 12:11 PMThe photo of the missing boy appeared in the "Family Affairs" program on the "Mir" TV channel. True, they used it to illustrate a fictional story of controversial paternity.

"I swam badly and did not orientate myself in the forest." Investigator and mom - about the long search for Maxim Markhalyuk88 19 February 2018 at 07:00Maxim Markhalyuk disappeared on September 16, 2017. Now the search for the boy is still ongoing, although not by as many people as in September. Nobody is going to close the criminal case. A special group, which includes 6 investigators and police officers, is engaged in it. One of the leaders of the USC in the Grodno region told TUT.BY about how the search for the boy is now going on, about working with psychics and volunteers and about the versions that the investigation is considering. And Maxim's mother, five months after the disappearance of the child, is still expecting her son to go home.

The police told how the search for Maxim Markhalyuk went and what is being done now37 December 22, 2017 at 01:18 PMThe police spent the day of informing in Novy Dvor, where Maksim Markhalyuk disappeared on September 16. Among other topics, the topic of finding a boy was also touched upon.

The term of the investigation into the case of the disappearance of 10-year-old Maxim in Pushcha was extendedNovember 27, 2017 at 01:00 PMInvestigators, together with the police, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Defense, local authorities and volunteers, carried out a huge amount of work aimed at establishing the boy's whereabouts.

"We believe that we just went to travel." Maxim, who disappeared in Pushcha, turns 1127 October 10, 2017 at 08:57 PMNow in Novy Dvor nothing reminds that two weeks ago the largest search and rescue operation in the country took place here.

"Polish trace" by Maxim Markhalyuk. The truck driver said he was giving a ride to another boy32 October 5, 2017 at 02:09 PMThe press service of the police in the city of Radom assured us that they know about the missing in Belarus little Maksim here and if information about any street children appears, this information will not go unnoticed.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus: official information from Poland, useful for finding our boy, did not arrive6 October 4, 2017 at 06:42 PMThe diplomat said that in connection with reports in the Polish regional media, the situation is being monitored by the Embassy of Belarus in Warsaw and the consulates in Bialystok and Biala Podlaska.

"Could have something to do with your missing boy." Polish police looking for a child hiding in a wagon178 October 4, 2017 at 01:21 PMA Polish regional news website reported that the police in Siedlce were looking for an unknown 10-year-old boy.

The mother of Maxim, who disappeared in the forest, believes that his son is alive. What's new in the search?79 October 3, 2017 at 03:19 PMThe woman said that every day psychologists from the Ministry of Emergency Situations come to her 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. Report from Novy Dvor, where they are looking for a child in Pushcha for 13 days78 September 29, 2017 at 08:10 PMOn this moment searches in Belovezhskaya Pushcha continue, but on a smaller scale. The large camp of the Angel search and rescue squad has moved to the square near the village council.