How the horror of Russian atrocities still haunt the people of Bucha two years on from massacre

The massacres in the two Ukrainian towns have not been forgotten (Pictures: Getty/Rex/AP)

WARNING: This story contains graphic and disturbing images.

Two years ago, towns and villages dotted around Kyiv were coming back under control of Ukrainian troops after month long period of Russian control.

But the scenes of carnage that Ukrainian troops were met with as they liberated the areas would stay with them forever.

On February 25, the battle for Hostomel, a key city outside of Kyiv, began – days later, the battles for Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka also intensified. 

For a month, Russian troops used the formerly peaceful Ukrainian towns as a battle ground, torturing and killing locals who had stayed in their homes, hoping to ride out the war.

Footage of men being marched blindfolded through the streets, hands tied behind their backs, shocked the world after the pure extent of Russian aggression was revealed in April 2022.

Communication had been cut off to the sleepy villages – leaving many unaware of the horrors that had unfolded.

Battle of Bucha

Many of the victims were found with their hands bound (Picture: AFP)

On March 3, 2022, Ukrainian troops managed to briefly regain control over the village, allowing some humanitarian aide and evacuations to take place. Others, mainly elderly and some hoping to wait out the war, stayed, even as Russians retook the village. 

Many of these citizens were men, aged between 16-60, who were later executed by Russian troops for fears they would begin fighting back.

As Russian troops regained control of Bucha and the nearby town of Irpin, reports of soldiers firing on civilians walking to get bread and other necessities were shared in a panic on the messaging app Telegram.

On one of the first days of the Russian occupation in Bucha, local woman Tetiana Pomazanko thought the tanks were Ukrainian, and walked out to see them.

Russians opened fire on her, killing her instantly – in early April, almost a month after she was killed, Tetiana’s body was still lying, half buried in her yard.

Her mother, Antonina Pomazanko said: ‘I buried her a bit in the night. There was so much shelling, I did not know what to do.’

Many of the residents killed were unable to be properly buried as Russians kept firing at their loved ones (Picture: Oleg Pereverzev)

The city was shelled for a month straight (Picture: Getty)

The map above shows a few of the major sites which saw carnage in Bucha (Map: Metro.co.uk)

The street which saw the most carnage in Bucha was Yablunska Street, which translates to ‘Apple Tree Street’. 

The formerly sleepy town outside of Kyiv had been turned into battleground against civilians, who were killed while inside of their homes, by sniper fire or shelling – and in some cases, after being taken hostage.

On Yablunska street, more than 11 bodies were seen on satellite imagery by March 11, 2022.

Ukraine’s official ombudswoman for human rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, said that many women were sexually abused in Bucha while the town was under Russian control.

Volodymyr Shepitko, 66, told the New York Times when he returned to his home in Bucha after its liberation in 2022, he discovered the body of a naked woman, wearing just a fur coat, in the cellar under his garden shed.

Beside her body, there were condom wrappers and a used condom, along with the two bullet casings used to kill her. Ms Denisova said she recorded one instance of sexual violence by Russian troops where a group of women and girls were kept in a basement for 25 days. Nine of them fell pregnant. 

Bucha’s aftermath: from those who were there first

Some bodies were found burnt beyond recognition (Picture: Getty)

On March 31, 2022, Ukrainian troops retook control over Bucha and nearby Irpin. What they discovered after entering the town would stay with them forever.

Ivan Zakharenko is a Ukrainian journalist from a small town between Bucha and Borodianka, and was one of the first people after Ukrainian troops to enter the besieged town after it was liberated.

He told Metro.co.uk: ‘As we entered Bucha we saw all of these dead bodies, and that shocked us. This was before it was on the news. 

‘I remember one moment we stopped to speak to people, and I thought, “Where am I?” Because I knew these places very well from my childhood, and I realised the place looks so different that I couldn’t understand where I was standing.

Hundreds of bodies – many with signs of torture – were recovered (Picture: Getty)

‘Everything was black from smoke, all this like destruction. When we were driving, I was just so amazed by how cruel the Russians were. All the buildings were destroyed.’

Police and cemetery workers began going throughout the town to find any bodies – four days after liberation, more than 360 bodies were recovered from Bucha alone, many with signs of torture. Ten were children. 

Images of black body bags dotted on the pale spring grass began circulating around the world, as Bucha began to bury their dead after a month-long occupation of horror.

Ivan added: ‘What happened in Bucha is a pure example of what the Putin regime is – just death and destruction. It helped the entire world and it helped the entire world to understand who they really are.’

Battle of Borodianka

The town of Borodianka was destroyed in the beginning of the war (Picture: AFP)

Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Borodianka, another massacre was taking place.

Located a few miles north of Bucha – not far from the Belarusian border, the suburban town was part of the main axis of Russia’s assault on Kyiv and was subjected to some of the worst war crimes of the conflict to date.

Initial eyewitness reports described seeing entire city blocks levelled by what would later be found to be illegal cluster bombs and munitions, which have been banned by over 100 countries.

Hundreds of civilians found themselves trapped beneath the twisted mass of steel and concrete, with those who attempted to save them getting shot on sight by occupying forces.

‘They were all our neighbours”, eyewitness Svetlana told the BBC in the immediate aftermath. ‘Shortly after the attack, people nearby heard some voices, Russian soldiers stopped them digging. They threatened to shoot if they tried.’

Another woman, Maria, spoke of the pain of listening to their neighbours suffer. ‘My soul hurts. I knew all those people,’ she told the outlet. ‘We knew they were there from the first day, but they wouldn’t let us get them out.’

Locals had friends and family trapped in the rubble (Picture: AFP)

Occupying forces set up perimeters around the town, forbidding the locals from leaving and executing those who tried.

One of the few to breach the perimeter during this time were humanitarian group Stay Safe UA. Formed of civilian volunteers who met on the Polish-Ukrainian border on Day 1 of the invasion, the group dedicated themselves to evacuating people from the frontlines and providing aid to those left behind in occupied territory.

After spending the first few weeks of the war evacuating people from Kyiv to Lviv, the group eventually turned their attention to Borodianka, which was still occupied at the time.

‘We were one of the first groups to enter the city, before it was liberated,’ Stay Safe co-founder Andriy told Metro. 

‘At the time the Russians were on all the roads surrounding Kyiv and you could expect to encounter them around every corner, so we had to keep changing routes. It was very extreme and dangerous.’

‘Our team was actually the first to enter Borodianka city- there was Bucha, and then there was Borodianka. When we first entered, it hadn’t been liberated yet, and there were still fights in the middle of the city.’

Borodianka: encountering a scene of death and destruction

The entire town was pummeled with shelling (Picture: Shutterstock)

Andriy explained when they entered Borodianka, the scenes were hard to deal with. Dead bodies were littered around, and the scent of gunpowder and death filled the nose.

Following its liberation, dozens of graves were found dotted around the outskirts of the city, each body telling a horrific story.

One volunteer told the Guardian he found the body of a pension-aged man whose head had been severed by Russian forces, and has still never been found. Others found a 15-year-old girl whose limbs had been mangled.

In one horrific incident, a volunteer recounted the story of an elderly woman who was tied up and forced to watch as Russian soldiers doused her husband in petrol and burned him alive.

Andriy continued: ‘When we arrived to drop off supplies, the people who came to greet us… their eyes were dark. They weren’t themselves and wouldn’t be for months. I can’t find the right word, but it’s like they were… crazy you know? Like they were looking straight through you and into space; like they weren’t really there. I’ll never forget that look in their eyes.’

He continued: ‘When we spoke with these people we all cried because of their stories- we heard how the Russians had killed their neighbours, how they stripped men naked and were throwing them around, and other things which were much, much worse.’

Soldiers took control over the town after a month of battling (Picture: Shutterstock)

Fellow Stay Safe co-founder Taras added: When we first headed down, some people didn’t understand that we were Ukrainians, because it had been occupied for more than 30 days and the Russians in the area made rules.

‘When Russians approach civilians, they’re ordered to lay down and not move. They didn’t care if it was snowing or raining or if there was some mud, and when we came in our van and opened the door to speak with some guy he automatically just laid down on the floor.’

Andriy added: ‘We brought a whole van of medical supplies, and we knew a doctor in the city who was a relative of our friend who had stayed in Borodianka throughout the occupation.

‘When we found him, we explained that we were friends of his relatives, but he wouldn’t believe us. He just looked at the sky and said “I don’t know those people. I don’t know who you are talking about. I have no idea.”  

‘His neighbour eventually came and told us that he no longer knows what’s going on around him and that he’s impossible to talk to anymore because of the things he saw during those 30 days of occupation.’

Two years on

Borodianka has since rebuilt what the Russians destroyed (Picture: Getty)

A memorial was erected for the group of men found bound and killed on Yablunska Street (Picture: AP)

The photos from Bucha and Borodianka have become some of the most recognisable and sickening taken in the course of the war. 

Bodies littering the street, many with their hands behind their backs, half-buried bodies and other horrific imagery remains in the minds of those who witnessed the atrocities.

But life has returned to the small towns outside of Kyiv, with subtle reminders of the horrors the streets witnessed. 

Ivan said: ‘When you go to Bucha now, you don’t see any signs of the war until you really search for them. 

‘Life is going full swing… like it was all a nightmare – like it never happened.’

Oleksandr Turovskyi’s son Sviatoslav was killed in Bucha (Picture: AP)

But look carefully, and you’ll see reminders.

Ukrainian flags and portraits of the men bound and killed on Yablunska Street are placed on a wall where their bodies were found. Their families cannot forget.

Oleksandr Turovskyi’s 35-year-old son Sviatoslav was one of those men. He told AP: ‘Parents should not bury their children. It’s not fair.

‘That’s why we have to talk about it, in order to stop it and prevent it from spreading. So that others cannot feel what we feel.’

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