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At St. Andrew’s Church, where many civilians were found in mass graves, priest Andriy Halawin of the New Orthodox Church of Ukraine leads mourning ceremonies for those currently killed in the war. In many churches, the anniversary of the Bucha massacre is mixed with the farewell of fallen soldiers.
The cemetery on the outskirts of the village with its once 36,000 inhabitants also contains anonymous graves of unidentified dead. Ukraine’s blue and yellow flags fly at many other rest areas, along with photos of the country’s fallen defenders.
Bucha, just over half an hour from the capital Kiev, stands for the atrocities of war like no other place. Along the way, the traces of the fighting of the Ukrainian troops against the Russian army are unmistakable: the buildings have been destroyed, there are bullet holes, shattered windows and shattered roads.
A year ago, on April 2, just days after the Russian withdrawal, pictures of corpses in Jablunska Street also went viral. It is located far from the center of Bucha in a settlement with small houses and well-ordered plots. Some of the dead had their hands tied behind their backs. A dead man lay next to his bicycle. A year later, almost nothing remains of the scenes of violence on the street. Bullet holes in fences and buildings are traces of fighting. The street is deserted.
According to various sources, 422 or 461 civilians were killed in Bucha alone. Attorney General Andriy Kostin even speaks of 700 deaths after the Russian invasion. Kostin also reports that 91 Russian soldiers have already been identified and that they are said to have been involved in more than 9,000 recorded war crimes in the Bucha district. “Torture, murder, sexual assault. This is the true face of the “Russian world” and the regime of the Russian Federation, which is based on total disregard for human rights principles,” Kostin said in February.
According to police chief Andriy Nebytov, 1,444 bodies of civilians were found in the Kiev region at the beginning of March this year. Nearly 200 bodies could not be identified. “We are taking the DNA, processing all missing persons reports and contacting the relatives and trying to identify them,” Nebytov told Ukraine’s Public Television.
A year later, Ukraine commemorates the crimes again with haunting videos. On the anniversary of the start of the war on February 24, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj Bucha described it as his personal worst experience of the war. A year ago, after the withdrawal of Russian troops, the leadership in Kiev showed the corpses. State guests from abroad visited the place where emergency services removed the bodies in black bags from the graves.
“Events that could not have been imagined in the 21st century became a reality in the Bucha and Irpin suburbs of Kiev,” Zelenskyj said on the anniversary of the massacre. “However, the liberation of the Kiev region became a symbol that Ukraine can win this war.” On Friday he also visited Butscha himself with state guests and honored soldiers with medals.
The Ukrainian Post, which consistently immortalizes Kiev’s triumphs on stamps, presented several stamps on Friday. The motto of the stamps: «No forgiveness! Don’t Forget!” Symbolic of Butscha, the stamp features a photograph of a destroyed Russian military column on the small town’s Bahnhofstrasse.
The horror images are ubiquitous, the evidence from the point of view of human rights activists is overwhelming. There are numerous allegations against the Russians, including murder, torture and rape. Despite this, Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, has denied committing war crimes even on the anniversary.
In a lengthy statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova again claimed it was a staging to prevent a diplomatic resolution of the conflict. At the time, Russia had openly shown itself during the negotiations in Turkey and, as a sign of this, withdrew its troops from the Kiev region. “In response, Ukrainian leaders staged the crude and cynical provocation in Bucha.”
Despite Russian demands, there are no official lists of names or forensic reports on the citizens “whose bodies have been displayed on the street,” Zakharova said. She described the photos published on the internet and social networks as manipulation. “The Zelenskyi regime has something to hide.”
It is clear that the people of Bucha would still be alive without the Russian invasion. At St. Andrew’s Church, Father Halawin remains in mourning and prayer – for a victory for the country against the Russian occupiers. He is standing by the open coffin of a fallen soldier. Dozens have come to say goodbye to Ihor Dyukaryev, his mother and widow kiss the dead man.
The 24-year-old was killed on February 20 in fighting near Dibrova in the Luhansk region. As a child, he fled from the Donbass to Bucha in 2014 and fought with his mother and sisters. On February 24, 2022, he volunteered when war broke out and was the youngest in his unit. A year later, on February 25, he was buried in Bucha cemetery by soldiers in uniform. Many of them shed their tears.
(SDA)
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
