there body in the basement of The abandoned yellow home .in the end of The street Close to railroad tracks. the man youngpale, dripping dry of Blood from his mouth, he was shot death And left in dark, no one He knows why the Russians brought him there, to home This was not him.
There is a pile of Play near the stairs to the basement. oscillating plastic clothespins on Blank line under cool gray line sky. They are all this left of Normal on This is the black end of The street in Bucha, where tank treads lie stripped of charred vehicles, wrecked civilian cars and ammunition boxes stacked next to an empty Russia military Rations and bottles of liquor.
the man in Downstairs is almost an afterthought, one more body in town where death Explanations aplenty, but satisfying for not like that.
Resident Mikola Babak, points out The man to an Associated Press reporter after thinking about the scene in a small courtyard nearby. three men I bow there. One is missing an eye. On an old carpet nearby one bodysomeone has put a bunch of yellow flowers.
a dog Stepped by wheelbarrow around corner, troubled. hand trolley carrying body of else dog. He was also shot.
silence after weeks of death
Your door stands a cigarette in one plastic bag hand of cat food in other.
“I’m very calm today” says. “I flew for The first the time.”
Initially of Occupy them for a month of The Russians have largely kept themselves focused, Bucha said on forward progress. When it stops they are gone house to house seek for young men and sometimes taking documents and phones. It seems that the Ukrainian resistance wearing on With them. The Russians looked even more angry, more impulsive. Sometimes they looked drunk.
The first When they visited your door, they were polite. But when they come back on His birthday, March 28, they yelled at him and in his face brother-in-Law. They put a grenade on brother-in- Armpit and threatened to pull the pin. that they took An AK-47 was shot near Babak’s feet. We Invited kill for him, one of They told them, but another Russian told them to leave him and go.
Before he left, the Russians asked him an excellent question: “Why are you still here?”
like a lot who stayed in Bucha, Babak is older – 61 years. It was not easy to leave. He thought he would survive. and yet, in end, stressful-out The Russians accused him of being a spoiler. Spent a month under occupation without any connection with The worldNo electricity, no running water, cooking over a fire. Wasn’t ready for This war.
Maybe the Russians weren’t.
around 6 pm on March 31 – Babak remembers it clearly – the Russians jumped into place vehicles And leftso quickly that they abandoned Organizations of their companions.
Now watching the police and other investigators arriveLook at the corpses in yard, and leave. He wonders when the bodies will be taken away so the families can mourn. Down the road an empty stadium, steps away from six charred corpses. people no know who They are.
“on this street We were fine, ‘Papaak saysbarren of Occupation. In Bucha, everything is relative. “They weren’t shooting anyone who Has stepped up out of they house. On the next streetthey did.”
Left wondering why
Walking through Bucha, an Associated Press reporter encountered more than twenty witnesses of Russian occupation. Almost everyone said they saw a file bodyand sometimes several more. Mostly civilians were killed mensometimes picky off at random. Many, including the elderly, say they have been threatened.
The question that survived the investigators and world Will be like The answer is why. Ukraine has seen atrocities of Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, near Irbin. But the pictures from this town are an hour drive from Kyiv – of cremated corpses with Hands tied, corpses scattered near bicycles, cars torn apart – burned global awareness – awareness like not others.
“It definitely seems to be very intentional. But it’s hard to do. know what or what more was the motive behind This senior we defense official He said this week talking on condition of Anonymity to discuss military Assess.
population of Bucha, as they are venture out of the cold homes and basements, show theories. Some think the Russians weren’t ready for a extended fight Or there were particularly undisciplined fighters among them. Some think that house-to-house targeting of younger men was chasing for these who Russian killer in Last few years in Separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine has provided shelter in City.
Sometimes, they say, the Russians themselves explain why they were killed.
at one Backyard in Buka are three graves, dug by neighbors who are too afraid to put them elsewhere. One of The dead killed, killed on March 4, hit in The head with backside of Gun.
On March 15, friend of The dead A man was approached by the Russians to demand his documents. they are in home, He said. On the way There, they passed the tomb. pointed to him out. The next Wait a minute, watch Irina Kolesnik saysThe soldiers Shot.
“He was talking a lot,” one He said adding an expletive.
By the end, no shreds of breaking discipline down. “They have gone from normal soldiers to much worse,” says Roman Sketenko, 24 years old who I saw four civilian bodies on The street Near him house.
Grenades were thrown into basements and corpses thrown in wells. Elderly man in nursing home It was found dead in His bed, it seems of Neglect, while lying younger person, possibly caregiver outsideshot him death. a woman in The seventies were told not to stick their heads together out of their homes or they will be killed. “If you leave homeI will obey and you, know What is the arrangement. I will burn down your house, remembers Titiana Petrovskaya one The soldier tells her.
Now that the Russians have done leftthe bodies are collected by careful researchers of Traps and mines. The body Bags are placed in Rows in a cemetery. Some bags are not fully closed. glimpse shows bloodstained face of a young Person. else shows Husband of White sneakers. Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said the count of dead The number of civilians reached 320 km of Wednesday. Most of them died of gunshots and some of the bodies with Their hands were tied “dumped like Firewood” in mass graves.
Vladislav Menchenko is an artist who Helps collect corpses. During the occupation, he said found else way to help – Observe the Russians with binoculars and say “appropriate” people“Where were they. Three weeks ago, he sayswas discovered.
The Russians came and stripped him of his clothes and put him near wall to be shot. But in who – which final moment something changed. The Russians had a list of Ukrainian military personnel to look forAnd it so happened that Menchenko was staying with one.
“I almost got killed” saysbut someone said, ‘This is not the man from list. “
He is afraid that the Russians will be back with more Experienced fighters who You may feel free to fire.
It is very easy to kill civilians
Many Bucha residents describe similar and frightening encounters. a building It was used as a base by the Russians; The population had to stay in The cellar is full of rubbish. It was cold and crowded, with about 100 people. Use buckets for toilets. There was not enough food. Children cried.
On 3 or 4 March, one resident on Ha way In the shelter, he was told to stand near the corpses of many of men who some of them were killed with Their hands are tied.
“I thought they were going to shoot us right there” saysAnd his name was not mentioned. And while she was standing there crying, a Russian soldier told her not to be afraid, they just wanted to talk with men. Three days later, she was released. not clear Why.
few homes Standing away 80year-old Galyna Cheredynachenko. tend on near the end of her berth, a bright pink scarf around head. When the Russians came to her door in early days of Occupation, stop their tank in her forehead yardalmost crushed her flower bulbs.
She refused to go to the shelter. Russians move in with Ha instead. They cooked in her backyard sleeps in Ha houseShe used her kettle for tea. She gave them tomatoes and cucumbers. They told her not to leave her room. “They weren’t badthat they just won’t let me out,” she says.
I just started getting to know the city real tally – around how at least four people in Ha area killed, all civilians, and how The Russians said people to bury dead in their yards.
“I was born in World War II, “Cheredynachenko says. “If you tell me the Nazis did this, I will understand. I don’t understand how The Russians can do that.”
they starved, says Another survivor, 63-yearOld Natalia Alexandrova. They caught a cold.
at firstshe saysThe Russians acted: “They said they came.” for Three days.” But the war is gone onAnd they started looting. Clothes, shoes, alcohol, gold, money. They shot the TV screens for no reason.
They feared that there were spies among the Ukrainians. Alexandrova says Her nephew was arrested on March 7 after being seen during filming destroyed tanks with his phone. been accused of Being a Ukrainian nationalist. Four days later, it was found in vault, shot in ear.
Days later, Alexandrova thought the Russians were gone and a neighbor slipped out To shoot nearby homes and protect them from looting. The Russians caught them and took them to the basement.
“they asked us’what kind of death Do you prefer slow or fast? “” grenade or gun?
“I told them I didn’t want to die,” she says. They were given 30 seconds to decide.
Suddenly soldiers They are summoned, leaving Alexandrova and her neighbor shaken but alive.
“I am not saying that everyone was crazy, but some were absolutely crazy bad people,” she says. Soldiers should some dignity. she was just Gang of Thieves.”
The Russians became desperate when they became clear They wouldn’t be able to move on Kyiv says Sergey Radetsky, who I noticed less movement of organized forces in Occupation final days. The soldiers they were just thinking how To loot and get it out. she was more Nervous and aggressive.
“They needed to kill Someone, “Hu says. “And killing Civilians are very easy.”
“Why did you come here?”
In the silent neighborhood gate of a home open. Old woman in fur coat in front entrance face down. a dog one of Many wander the streets, standing next to it, and shouting. curled inside on worn wood floor Under the kitchen table, another elderly woman.
no one It seems that know how they died. They have been lying there since March 5th, says A neighbor, Sergey. “The shock is not enough to describe it.” It is believed that a Russian sniper shot them in the direction of A distance.
About the corner on Empty streeta woman in A knitted hat watching from her door. In a muffled blast from distant mine clearances, she was swaying in terror grab it head. Then she sighed.
Valentina Nikrotenko is 63 years old and ended the occupation with her husband who So sick that he can barely stand. he is lying on mattress on their living room floor under the blankets. Nikrotenko thinks that the war rocked his mind. gloomy home Those around them also scattered, with a half-made a meal of Neglect the bread and beetroot near the sink.
Nekrotenko says I saw the Russians storming house across the street. Plot of A mortar hit the roof of her house. Lame, not well herself, she didn’t go away, just went out for water.
Cuts off for For a long time, she didn’t know about the corpses of Elderly women A few houses away. She doesn’t know why panic world to her hometown to document dead.
“why did you come here?” “There is nothing important in Bucha,” Nikrotenko asks, frankly bewildered.
there body in the basement of The abandoned yellow home .in the end of The street Close to railroad tracks. the man youngpale, dripping dry of Blood from his mouth, he was shot death And left in dark, no one He knows why the Russians brought him there, to home This was not him.
There is a pile of Play near the stairs to the basement. oscillating plastic clothespins on Blank line under cool gray line sky. They are all this left of Normal on This is the black end of The street in Bucha, where tank treads lie stripped of charred vehicles, wrecked civilian cars and ammunition boxes stacked next to an empty Russia military Rations and bottles of liquor.
the man in Downstairs is almost an afterthought, one more body in town where death Explanations aplenty, but satisfying for not like that.
Resident Mikola Babak, points out The man to an Associated Press reporter after thinking about the scene in a small courtyard nearby. three men I bow there. One is missing an eye. On an old carpet nearby one bodysomeone has put a bunch of yellow flowers.
a dog Stepped by wheelbarrow around corner, troubled. hand trolley carrying body of else dog. He was also shot.
silence after weeks of death
Your door stands a cigarette in one plastic bag hand of cat food in other.
“I’m very calm today” says. “I flew for The first the time.”
Initially of Occupy them for a month of The Russians have largely kept themselves focused, Bucha said on forward progress. When it stops they are gone house to house seek for young men and sometimes taking documents and phones. It seems that the Ukrainian resistance wearing on With them. The Russians looked even more angry, more impulsive. Sometimes they looked drunk.
The first When they visited your door, they were polite. But when they come back on His birthday, March 28, they yelled at him and in his face brother-in-Law. They put a grenade on brother-in- Armpit and threatened to pull the pin. that they took An AK-47 was shot near Babak’s feet. We Invited kill for him, one of They told them, but another Russian told them to leave him and go.
Before he left, the Russians asked him an excellent question: “Why are you still here?”
like a lot who stayed in Bucha, Babak is older – 61 years. It was not easy to leave. He thought he would survive. and yet, in end, stressful-out The Russians accused him of being a spoiler. Spent a month under occupation without any connection with The worldNo electricity, no running water, cooking over a fire. Wasn’t ready for This war.
Maybe the Russians weren’t.
around 6 pm on March 31 – Babak remembers it clearly – the Russians jumped into place vehicles And leftso quickly that they abandoned Organizations of their companions.
Now watching the police and other investigators arriveLook at the corpses in yard, and leave. He wonders when the bodies will be taken away so the families can mourn. Down the road an empty stadium, steps away from six charred corpses. people no know who They are.
“on this street We were fine, ‘Papaak saysbarren of Occupation. In Bucha, everything is relative. “They weren’t shooting anyone who Has stepped up out of they house. On the next streetthey did.”
Left wondering why
Walking through Bucha, an Associated Press reporter encountered more than twenty witnesses of Russian occupation. Almost everyone said they saw a file bodyand sometimes several more. Mostly civilians were killed mensometimes picky off at random. Many, including the elderly, say they have been threatened.
The question that survived the investigators and world Will be like The answer is why. Ukraine has seen atrocities of Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, near Irbin. But the pictures from this town are an hour drive from Kyiv – of cremated corpses with Hands tied, corpses scattered near bicycles, cars torn apart – burned global awareness – awareness like not others.
“It definitely seems to be very intentional. But it’s hard to do. know what or what more was the motive behind This senior we defense official He said this week talking on condition of Anonymity to discuss military Assess.
population of Bucha, as they are venture out of the cold homes and basements, show theories. Some think the Russians weren’t ready for a extended fight Or there were particularly undisciplined fighters among them. Some think that house-to-house targeting of younger men was chasing for these who Russian killer in Last few years in Separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine has provided shelter in City.
Sometimes, they say, the Russians themselves explain why they were killed.
at one Backyard in Buka are three graves, dug by neighbors who are too afraid to put them elsewhere. One of The dead killed, killed on March 4, hit in The head with backside of Gun.
On March 15, friend of The dead A man was approached by the Russians to demand his documents. they are in home, He said. On the way There, they passed the tomb. pointed to him out. The next Wait a minute, watch Irina Kolesnik saysThe soldiers Shot.
“He was talking a lot,” one He said adding an expletive.
By the end, no shreds of breaking discipline down. “They have gone from normal soldiers to much worse,” says Roman Sketenko, 24 years old who I saw four civilian bodies on The street Near him house.
Grenades were thrown into basements and corpses thrown in wells. Elderly man in nursing home It was found dead in His bed, it seems of Neglect, while lying younger person, possibly caregiver outsideshot him death. a woman in The seventies were told not to stick their heads together out of their homes or they will be killed. “If you leave homeI will obey and you, know What is the arrangement. I will burn down your house, remembers Titiana Petrovskaya one The soldier tells her.
Now that the Russians have done leftthe bodies are collected by careful researchers of Traps and mines. The body Bags are placed in Rows in a cemetery. Some bags are not fully closed. glimpse shows bloodstained face of a young Person. else shows Husband of White sneakers. Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said the count of dead The number of civilians reached 320 km of Wednesday. Most of them died of gunshots and some of the bodies with Their hands were tied “dumped like Firewood” in mass graves.
Vladislav Menchenko is an artist who Helps collect corpses. During the occupation, he said found else way to help – Observe the Russians with binoculars and say “appropriate” people“Where were they. Three weeks ago, he sayswas discovered.
The Russians came and stripped him of his clothes and put him near wall to be shot. But in who – which final moment something changed. The Russians had a list of Ukrainian military personnel to look forAnd it so happened that Menchenko was staying with one.
“I almost got killed” saysbut someone said, ‘This is not the man from list. “
He is afraid that the Russians will be back with more Experienced fighters who You may feel free to fire.
It is very easy to kill civilians
Many Bucha residents describe similar and frightening encounters. a building It was used as a base by the Russians; The population had to stay in The cellar is full of rubbish. It was cold and crowded, with about 100 people. Use buckets for toilets. There was not enough food. Children cried.
On 3 or 4 March, one resident on Ha way In the shelter, he was told to stand near the corpses of many of men who some of them were killed with Their hands are tied.
“I thought they were going to shoot us right there” saysAnd his name was not mentioned. And while she was standing there crying, a Russian soldier told her not to be afraid, they just wanted to talk with men. Three days later, she was released. not clear Why.
few homes Standing away 80year-old Galyna Cheredynachenko. tend on near the end of her berth, a bright pink scarf around head. When the Russians came to her door in early days of Occupation, stop their tank in her forehead yardalmost crushed her flower bulbs.
She refused to go to the shelter. Russians move in with Ha instead. They cooked in her backyard sleeps in Ha houseShe used her kettle for tea. She gave them tomatoes and cucumbers. They told her not to leave her room. “They weren’t badthat they just won’t let me out,” she says.
I just started getting to know the city real tally – around how at least four people in Ha area killed, all civilians, and how The Russians said people to bury dead in their yards.
“I was born in World War II, “Cheredynachenko says. “If you tell me the Nazis did this, I will understand. I don’t understand how The Russians can do that.”
they starved, says Another survivor, 63-yearOld Natalia Alexandrova. They caught a cold.
at firstshe saysThe Russians acted: “They said they came.” for Three days.” But the war is gone onAnd they started looting. Clothes, shoes, alcohol, gold, money. They shot the TV screens for no reason.
They feared that there were spies among the Ukrainians. Alexandrova says Her nephew was arrested on March 7 after being seen during filming destroyed tanks with his phone. been accused of Being a Ukrainian nationalist. Four days later, it was found in vault, shot in ear.
Days later, Alexandrova thought the Russians were gone and a neighbor slipped out To shoot nearby homes and protect them from looting. The Russians caught them and took them to the basement.
“they asked us’what kind of death Do you prefer slow or fast? “” grenade or gun?
“I told them I didn’t want to die,” she says. They were given 30 seconds to decide.
Suddenly soldiers They are summoned, leaving Alexandrova and her neighbor shaken but alive.
“I am not saying that everyone was crazy, but some were absolutely crazy bad people,” she says. Soldiers should some dignity. she was just Gang of Thieves.”
The Russians became desperate when they became clear They wouldn’t be able to move on Kyiv says Sergey Radetsky, who I noticed less movement of organized forces in Occupation final days. The soldiers they were just thinking how To loot and get it out. she was more Nervous and aggressive.
“They needed to kill Someone, “Hu says. “And killing Civilians are very easy.”
“Why did you come here?”
In the silent neighborhood gate of a home open. Old woman in fur coat in front entrance face down. a dog one of Many wander the streets, standing next to it, and shouting. curled inside on worn wood floor Under the kitchen table, another elderly woman.
no one It seems that know how they died. They have been lying there since March 5th, says A neighbor, Sergey. “The shock is not enough to describe it.” It is believed that a Russian sniper shot them in the direction of A distance.
About the corner on Empty streeta woman in A knitted hat watching from her door. In a muffled blast from distant mine clearances, she was swaying in terror grab it head. Then she sighed.
Valentina Nikrotenko is 63 years old and ended the occupation with her husband who So sick that he can barely stand. he is lying on mattress on their living room floor under the blankets. Nikrotenko thinks that the war rocked his mind. gloomy home Those around them also scattered, with a half-made a meal of Neglect the bread and beetroot near the sink.
Nekrotenko says I saw the Russians storming house across the street. Plot of A mortar hit the roof of her house. Lame, not well herself, she didn’t go away, just went out for water.
Cuts off for For a long time, she didn’t know about the corpses of Elderly women A few houses away. She doesn’t know why panic world to her hometown to document dead.
“why did you come here?” “There is nothing important in Bucha,” Nikrotenko asks, frankly bewildered.