Witness: how Russian snipers chose targets in Bucha (Video)

28.02.2023

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During the occupation, 67 people were buried in a grave near the church in Buchi. Among them are victims of war crimes, killed by shelling and murder / Photo of the General Prosecutor’s Office

Officially, Russian soldiers killed 458 civilians in Bucha during the occupation in the spring of 2022. Evidence collected by Active Citizens shows that they were often shot because the occupiers did not like something about their new victim. Only around one 9-storey residential building on Tarasivska Street, nine people were buried during the occupation.

«We had nine graves (buried during the occupation in the yard of a multi-storey residential building). Then they were reburied», — said the residents of this house.

«These were all your neighbours? Those who were killed», — the journalist asked.

«These were all your neighbours? The ones who were killed», — the journalist asks.

«It’s all around our house. We have three dead in our house. Everyone was killed», — said the head of the residents’ committee.

«Yes. Ihor was killed from the third floor. Yes. He and I were walking here in the evening, sitting together, because Vasylivna’s birthday was on the 19th (March 2022 – Ed.). 19-20, and on the 21st we were already burying him», — says another woman.

«And he was just walking down the street?», — the journalist clarifies.

«Yes. He was just crossing the street. He was walking with his dog, you know… And there’s a crossing there. He was crossing and was killed by a sniper right there. He killed him right there…», — the women say, pointing in the direction their neighbour was walking with his dog.

«I know many such cases. Many young people and men were killed. Snipers», — says another woman.

«Another in the house at 16.10… They demanded that we live according to their time (in winter, the difference between Kyiv and Moscow time is an hour — Editors). So the curfew is at 4pm. That’s it, nobody goes anywhere. And he came out with his dog at 4.10 p.m. There was a bang near the house and that was it. And there, at the Millennium, he was on a crane (a Russian sniper set up a position on a construction crane at the construction site of the Millennium residential complex—- Editors). And they were watching us from that two-storey building, see? And we were here. We were all in full view all the time. And as soon as we saw the tanks coming, the men immediately ran to the entrance. That’s why we went to the side of the building, because the men would not have made it from the other side of the street. And me and the girls — well, we are grandmothers», — says a resident of this house.

When Bucha was occupied by the Russian army, the city’s electricity was cut off, there was no gas supply, no heating in the buildings, and there were interruptions in the water supply. The residents of this multi-storey building started cooking outside on a fire for all the residents who had not evacuated. At first, they did it on the other side of the road because there was a forest there and it was easier to collect firewood. Then they set up a bonfire on the lawn near the house.

«Can you imagine how tall we were? I’m a size 36 shoe. And I was wearing a size 42 – one shoe on top of another. It was very cold. And we were here from morning to evening, just warming ourselves. They saw our every move», — the woman says.

«You know, we saw them, they saw us. It was as if they had us under control. As many of us as there were, so many remained. They say they came up to other houses and counted people», — another neighbour adds.

«They came to the 3-storey building with lists. It is unknown where they got the lists from and who lived there», — said another woman.

«If they saw a mobile phone, they killed it immediately. And there were traitors in that three-storey building. There were traitors for sure. About a year ago (in 2021, a year before the war – Ed.), we rented apartments, bought apartments here, and then they came specifically – they had everything written down. Here are the lists: aha, your husband is in the police, or your husband is in the military – that’s it, no more talk. They (Russian soldiers – Ed.) killed, they just killed», — said a woman who spent the entire occupation in Bucha and buried several of her murdered neighbours.

What happened in Bucha during the occupation by Russian troops in March 2022 has already gone down in world history as the Bucha Massacre or the Bucha Genocide. Investigators from Ukraine and other countries have gathered evidence of mass killings of Ukrainian civilians, accompanied by abductions, torture, rape, including of children, and looting.

It is now known that 458 civilians were killed in Bucha during the Russian occupation.

An analysis of satellite images by journalists from the American newspaper «The New York Times» refutes Russia’s claim that the killing of civilians in Bucha took place after Russian soldiers had left the city. Investigative journalists from «Bellingcat» exposed Moscow’s attempts to distort the tragic events in the Kyiv region.