Uncle Kolya was shot in the back of the head by the russian military. We buried him in the backyard — residents of the liberated Bucha, near Kyiv

A car was shot from behind coming into Bucha. At first glance, the car appears empty. That is, the people were ok, they managed to jump out, it’s over. But looking inside, you feel the characteristic smell of a dead body. On the front seat — there’s a person. Most likely a woman. It seems like she was hit in the head. Everything is covered in her blood, her hair, and on the other seat there’s a part of a jaw. Those who rode with her covered their bodies with things. Probably tried to hide. To protect their bodies from abuse after death.

I am not writing this to impress, but to document, at least a small part of what the Russian army did in the Kyiv region for more than a month.

«Shot in the back of the head»

Bucha, like Irpin, Borodyanka, Andriivka or Makariv, all of which I have visited or just passed by in the last few days, resemble scenes from a horror movie. Destroyed houses: some from an air bomb, others were fired at by artillery. There are unexploded shells of various calibers and bodies on the streets of people who have not yet been buried.

«In recent days, it has been said (that the Russian Army – ed.) will shoot anyone in dark clothes and without a white bandage. And they did. Our neighbor, Uncle Kolya, was shot. He had on a camouflage fishing jacket. He was probably shot because of that. Even though, he walked in it all month.

He lived nearby. He literally was 30 meters away from the «ATB» – and immediately ran into their «patrol». Shot in the back of the head. We buried him in his backyard. His wife already knows. She is in Kyiv. I have already called the city council, they said it would be possible to rebury him in a month,”said Fedor, a resident of Bucha.

This is just one of the deaths reported by relatives. Dozens of bodies still need to be identified. According to Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, at least 400 people were killed during the occupation of Russian troops in the town of Bucha in the Kyiv Region.

Dozens of killed Russian soldiers simply dumped bodies into mass graves. One of such burials is on the territory of the Church of St. Andrew and All Saints the First Called in Bucha. The bodies here are barely covered with earth, the limbs of people can be seen from under the sand with clay.

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Also read: There was more than one Bucha: mass executions of civilians — a favorite of Russian methods of suppressing resistance

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Every day under the surveillance of the occupiers

The number of victims in Borodyanka is not even mentioned yet. Only a few days ago, rescuers began to dismantle the rubble of houses destroyed during air strikes in the early days of the full-scale Russian invasion.

At least four 9-storey buildings in the village fell like cardboard. Everything that held together the walls that apartment owners had been making for years was on the streets: books, clothes, furniture, old photographs, children’s toys and school diplomas.

Most of them managed to leave the village in the first days, but there were those who stayed. Pensioner Volodymyr Poznyakov says that twenty people did not want to be evacuated from his house with more than 250 apartments. They all lived together in the basement.

«It flew over us day and night. And how did they survive? Together they somehow survived. They lived together. The last time there was fresh bread was on February 25. They shared with each other. But the worst thing was not that, but when there was no connection.

I then found a small radio, pulled the batteries from the remote. And I was an informant to people — I told them that it was a broadcast on the radio. When they learned that in Trostyanets (a town in the Sumy region liberated from the occupiers – ed.) The Kantemirov division was «combed», then almost everyone clapped their hands, «says Volodymyr Oleksandrovych.

All those who remained, says a resident of Borodyanka, Mykola Humeniuk, lived under the surveillance of the occupiers every day.

«You come with a pan from the basement to heat water for tea over the fire. Because we have no water, no gas, no light. You hear: “Who is standing? Put it down! ” I put it down. «Lift the lid.» I lifted it and they saw that it was really just water. You go back — and they check again.

It was impossible to go out calmly, you are constantly surveilling us. It’s been like this for 4 and a half weeks. For three weeks I did not leave the basement at all, I was black with dirt and my hair was overgrown. I decided to go out on the fourth week at my own risk,” the man recalls.

When Russian vehicles entered the village, Nikolai and the men from the Territorial Defense threw a line of «Molotov cocktails.» He says that when he was stopped by Russian patrol three weeks later, he thought he had been identified and would be killed, but it all passed.

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Also listen to: In Hostomel’ occupiers swept away traces of the crimes — the head of military administration Taras Dumenko

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The occupying army fled with a loot. They even took blankets and pillows with them, locals say.

«Almost everyone left us. So they smashed doors, windows, took everything they could. And how they fled: a line of vehicles was leaving, and between them trucks with everything that was stolen. One armored personnel carrier, I remember, was riding, with a soldier sitting on it, holding a washing machine in his hands. Well, are they warriors? Dirty, torn,”Volodymyr Poznyakov recalls.

The occupiers left behind garbage, unused shells and boxes from them, a pile of burnt cars, destroyed houses and the letters «V» everywhere: in basements, houses, cars, say locals in Andriyivka.

 

“There were still cars. They wrote the letter «V» and drove them. The cars they left, we thought they, might survive. No. They used the cars, shot at them on the spot, set them on fire and left. And then, as they were already fleeing, the shells were carried to the basements of the houses opposite to them and set on fire. It was so torn down. Everything was torn down, the roof on that other side demolished my house,” says Petro Zamishailo.

But many shells still remain on the streets of the liberated settlements: some did not detonate during the shelling, some Russian troops left them in their boxes as they ran away. Only on April 6, according to the SES, explosives technicians inspected for the presence of explosives in more than 7 hectares of the Kyiv region, neutralizing more than a thousand munitions. In total, about 7,000 unexploded ordnance have been found since the beginning of the demining process.

Anastasiya Horpinchenko, liberated settlements of the Kyiv region, Hromadske Radio

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