Butscha after the massacre: charred corpses and bewilderment

Not all the victims of the Bucha massacre have yet been buried. Mine clearers are on the move in the Kiev suburb. Only a few people dare to go out again.

Small country houses with front gardens line the street: the window panes are broken, the gables are torn, the house walls are shattered. In front of the garden gates are burnt-out tanks, crushed cars, a boot with a foot still stuck in it. A bobby car that is still standing in the driveway, completely unharmed, appears completely bizarre. The mine clearing vehicles are on the move in the avenue to make the streets accessible again for people.

Only a few people dare to go out again, Victor for example. He was a journalist, he says. “Was”, that’s what many say here. Because that was before the war. His wife and two children made it out of town in time, Victor stayed – in the basement for days. Then he went to neighbors because his apartment was completely destroyed and he had nothing to eat. Constant shots and bombs overhead, but he hasn’t been able to share any of that with his loved ones for weeks.

“We weren’t allowed to bury the dead”

“It wasn’t until the Russians left that I was able to cry for the first time. I couldn’t talk to my parents or my family,” says Victor. “I had such a big lump in my throat, I listened to them, but not a word came out of me. It was all so terrible.”

Victor chain smokes, his fingertips are dark yellow. It looks like he’s been smoking more than he’s eaten in the past few weeks. “Here from the house next door a couple died and a young girl. She was injured and the Russians had dragged her out of the house. I don’t know what they did to her in the yard.”

The bodies of the girl and the couple just lay there for days: “The Russians didn’t allow us to bury the dead at first. Only when they left did they say, now you can bury them,” reports Victor.

First shot, then burned

In another backyard of a house there are still corpses, completely charred. The Kyiv criminal police have put up signs and are investigating the crime scene. The detectives say the people were shot at before they were burned. Presumably to cover tracks, but that would now be investigated further.

More than 100 journalists from all over the world watch as the bodies are put into sacks and then taken away. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry organized the trip for the media, Bucha is still a restricted area. Because the deminers have only recently started to clean the streets.

“He was just shot”

Two older women dare to go for a short walk again for the first time. “Out of my window I saw a man riding a bicycle. He was simply shot by a sniper,” says one of the women. “We weren’t allowed to turn on any lights in the evening either. They said they would shoot as soon as they saw a light.”

International teams are soon to come to Bucha to investigate possible war crimes committed by the Russian armed forces. Victor also wants to testify and soon write a long article about what he had to experience in the last few weeks. But for that, he says, he will probably need some time.