Alex Crawford, with cameraman Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham and producer Artem Lysak, reports from the village of Yahidne where more than 300 residents were held captive in a school basement for 28 days.

Surrounded by forest, the village of Yahidne in northern Ukraine looks deceptively peaceful.

On a bright, summer’s day, a troupe of singers dressed in national costume perform in the ruins of a bombed-out, community club. Their voices lilt and lift, as their bodies sway. The audience clap, smile and tap their feet.

On the surface, there are little signs of the shared trauma they’ve suffered. But look closer at this joyful scene, and several spectators are weeping. Others hold their heads in their hands.

The memory of “28 days of horror” – when Russian soldiers trapped almost the entire population in a school basement – is still raw.

In the middle of their performance, the singers fall silent, their heads bowed to honour those who lost their lives when the Russians took over the village.

“We went in as children and came out as adults. Your values change when you can’t eat, sleep or go for a shower,” says 16-year-old Marina, one of the singers. “It’s hard to forget and hard to remember.”

Back in late February 2022, in the violent first month of war, almost the entire village – with a population of around 400 before the Russian invasion – was held captive below ground in dark, freezing temperatures with little electricity.

They were starved of food and water, tormented and tortured by their kidnappers. Ten of them died in captivity, while others spoke of enduring humiliating and brutal conditions where disease and fear ran rampant.

Now more than a year after their ordeal, these villagers are about to be the star witnesses in Ukraine’s biggest war crimes trial to date which will see 15 Russian soldiers go on trial.