From the very beginning of the Russian aggression, the Russian forces attempted to capture Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Russian troops tried to break through from the north and encircle Kyiv. In fact, from the very first days of the war, small suburbs of Kyiv: Bucha (from February 27), Irpin (from February 27) and Hostomel (partially from February 24) were under occupation. Almost immediately, disturbing news began to pour in from these modern and cozy towns, dominated by young middle-class families.
The Russian troops not only repeatedly disrupted the evacuation of civilians, engaged in robbery and looting, but also unleashed real terror against the civilian population. For example, on March 16, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine published another recording of a telephone conversation between a Russian military man and his wife:
- Here, dude, a friend of mine, drove a tank into the yard, took out the f*cking doors, shot them (family) all, then raped them. He ate, drank - now they ( his command) give him a medal for it!
- (woman, located in the Russian Federation) I hope you don’t f*cking rape anyone there, otherwise I’ll f*cking kill you!
- This, he says, is generally a f*cking topic! He said that he would like to fight like this for all his life!
"This is propaganda!" - skeptics can rightly reproach. Indeed, during the war, the image of the enemy is always demonized, and such accusations require evidence. There weren't many of them until yesterday...
The offensive of the Russian army on Kyiv failed, and their troops were forced to leave their positions near Kyiv in a hurry. At the end of March, the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to retake positions, and on April 2, the complete liberation of the region was announced. Immediately after that, Anatoly Fedoruk, the mayor of Bucha, reported that a mass grave was found in the city, where about 300 people were buried, and dozens of corpses lay along the streets.
Entering Bucha, the Ukrainian military showed the world really horrific footage. So on one of the videos you can see how the corpses of at least 12 civilians lie on just a few hundred meters stretch of road.
At least 5 killed civilians
Another 5 bodies of civilians
Apparently a married couple killed
Skeptics may assume that most of the casualties are the result of artillery fire. However, closer pictures show that there are no signs of exploding shells around. So there are no impact craters around, although the surroundings look damaged, but there are no traces of fragments.
Apparently the man was just riding his bike down the street when he was shot
Likewise: although the asphalt looks damaged, there are no signs of exploding shells. The corpses lie in different directions, which simply indicates indiscriminate firing of small arms.
However, there are far more horrific facts. Some of the victims were not just killed, but literally executed. Proofs of this is the tied hands of the victims.
The photo shows that one of the dead men had his hands tied behind his back. Probably, he had been shot in the head. Likewise in other pictures.
The corpses of 7 civilians. One of them with his hands tied. Please note that in the corner of the picture you can see the dry ration of the Russian army, which indicates that there were Russian soldiers nearby.
Another video published by Ukrainian journalists shows a place of execution of civilians equipped in the basement of one of the houses. According to local residents, the Russian military placed a barracks in one of the rooms, and made a torture chamber in the other. The video shows that the Russian military left the bodies of 5 men who were shot the day before.
5 killed men. One of them was shot in the knee
It is noteworthy that the hands are tied exclusively with a white piece of cloth. It is his Russian troops that are used as one of the identification marks, like the Ukrainian military - yellow or blue tape. As one option, civilians were tied up with available improvised material.
Russian military man with a white armband
The massacre did not spare even the neighborhood. Along the Zhytomyr highway - one of the key road arteries of Kyiv, for which there were battles for a long time, there are also a large number of civilians who were shot. So on April 2, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine published a photograph of dead civilians.
According to the MoD, the bodies of the naked women were covered with a blanket. Most likely they were sexually abused and subsequently killed. The fact that the bodies, among other things, were covered with tires testifies to the desire of Russian soldiers to burn them.
Corps along the Zhytomyr highway
The first picture shows two corpses. In the car in the second picture, according to eyewitnesses, there is still the body of the driver. Most likely his car was crushed by tracked vehicles.
We can state that none of the pictures published on the network from the Zhytomyr highway shows traces of explosions from shells. Judging by the nature of the damage to the cars, they were crushed by caterpillar vehicles, shot, or simply taken out of the drivers and killed along the road.
Execution lists
A little later, their bodies were identified. They turned out to be the family of the headman of the village of Motyzhyn, Olha Sukhenko. She, along with her son and husband, disappeared on March 23. She was found in the grave with her son, not far from this place in the sewer manhole they found her husband, who was most likely tortured to death.
Olga Sukhenko with her son and husband
Most likely, this brave woman refused to cooperate with the Russian troops, which is why she was kidnapped and executed
Why is everything so much worse?
The massacre in Bucha shocked the whole world. Photos from the city flew around the front pages of international publications. Many of them compare Bucha with the tragedy in Serebrenica. However, the situation is much worse.
Bucha is a small city by Ukrainian standards. Its population is about 36 thousand people. Nevertheless, mass graves are already being found in the city, as in neighboring cities. In Bucha alone, a burial ground for 280-300 people is reported. The territory of the city has not yet been cleared of mines, so the search for the dead will continue for a long time, and their number will constantly grow. However, the Russians still control cities, the population of which is many times greater than in Bucha. Kherson, Melitopol, Berdyansk, the environs of Chernihov and Mariupol were occupied. The last of these has ten times the population of Bucha. And if information about mass executions reaches us from the outskirts of Kyiv, then Mariupol is currently completely cut off from communication with the outside world. According to those who were able to get out of the city, thousands of civilians from the outskirts of the city are forcibly deported to Russia, and in almost every yard there are graves of residents who died during shelling.
Kidnapping, torture, destruction of civilian infrastructure, looting, executions and rape are the tactics of the Russian army. A tactic that many still try to ignore. Human Rights Watch has so far gathered evidence of the targeted killing of 9 civilians in Ukraine by Russian soldiers. Although in our article, the photographs show at least 32 civilian casualties. In reality, there are hundreds of them in just one city and thousands throughout Ukraine.
However, many European politicians refuse to show a tough response to the atrocities practiced by the Russian military. So far, there is no talk of an embargo on Russian energy resources or tougher sanctions on the Russian financial sector, although the crimes of the Russian military have been talked about for a long time. Although many Western media cover the topic of war crimes, they always add “According to the Ukrainian military” or “Kyiv claims” - showing a certain mistrust. Although it is enough to drive less than 20 km from Kyiv to be convinced of the authenticity of the accusations.
Unfortunately, the tragedy in Bucha is not the only one. Soon, the Ukrainian army will begin to liberate more and more territories, shedding light on the atrocities of the Russian military. And then, in terms of the number of victims, the tragedy in Bucha will be overshadowed by other cities.
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