Eyewitnesses Identify a Civilian Massacre in Bucha, Ukraine

A family walks among destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, Ukraine.

Russian forces withdrew from the Ukrainian town of Bucha on March 31 after over a month of occupation, leaving behind a horrifying scene of torture and death. 

Survivors of the Bucha massacre described the progression of the Russian occupation as violence toward civilians increased. Mykola Babak, a resident of Bucha, remembers the change from the initial days of the Russian occupation, in which the Russian forces mostly left civilians unharmed, to the final days before the Russian departure, when the violence against Ukrainian citizens steadily increased.

As time progressed, the killings grew to be increasingly random. Babak describes the violence of the Russian soldiers: “On this street we were fine…They weren’t shooting anyone who stepped out of their house. On the next street, they did.” This erratic and extreme violence left corpses scattered throughout the town. Many civilians were trapped in their homes in fear of Russian soldiers. One of these Ukrainians, Nataliya Aleksandrova, spoke of the demeanor of the Russian forces: “Soldiers should have some dignity. They were just a gang of thieves.”

The scenes left behind by the Russian soldiers show evidence of torture and death, according to the Washington Post. Local officials and citizens have begun to clear the corpses from the streets, many of which were beheaded, dismembered, and burned. Although many of the bodies have not been identified, a majority are men in civilian clothing who remained in Bucha throughout the occupation. Among the corpses of murdered Ukrainians are those of Russian soldiers who stayed behind when the Russians abruptly left the city. Since the Russian departure from Bucha, forensic investigators have begun to exhume a mass grave and work to identify the victims of the massacre. 

The Kremlin denied the allegations that Russian forces had executed civilians in Bucha and accused Ukrainians and the West of forging atrocities to paint Russia in a negative light. Dmitry Medvedev, current deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, called the circling images “Ukrainian propaganda” and alleged that Ukrainian forces may have killed their own citizens in order to discredit Russia. 

Not all Russians support their government’s perspective, however. Yevgenia Albats, chief editor of the New Times foresees a future in which the guilt of Russia “will lie on our children and grandchildren.” In her view, this is a future in which the myth of the liberator as a key aspect of the Russian identity has been annihilated, and the Russian people must bear responsibility for the crimes of their country.