Bodies scattered on ‘death street’ in Ukrainian town

Bucha, Ukraine, April 3, 2022 (AFP) – After the withdrawal of Russian forces, a tree-lined street in the Ukrainian town of Bucha on the outskirts of Kiev was strewn with corpses as far as the eye could see.

20 bodies wearing civilian clothes. Some seem to be looking at the cloudy sky, while others remain with their faces on the asphalt.

Three were strapped to their bikes, while others were near vehicles with pale skin, crushed or bullet holes.

According to AFP journalists entering Bucha, someone’s hands are tied behind their back with an open Ukrainian passport.

Russia’s hasty retreat after its occupation of Kiev’s slums reveals more and more destruction with each passing day.

“All these people were shot in the back of the head,” the mayor, Anatoly Fedoruk, told AFP.

He added that 280 more people were buried in mass graves in Bucha, and the bodies of all families were left in bullet-riddled cars.

Surrounded by pine forests stretching as far as Belarus, Bucha was a peaceful place until the Russian occupation.

Despite a month of fierce fighting in cities such as Bucha and neighboring Irpin, Russian forces were unable to encircle Kiev, 25 km away. But the destruction is complete.

– Russian occupation – Holes punctured by the blasts are seen in many buildings, while crushed cars are everywhere, according to the AFP team visiting Bucha.

Supermarkets, cafes and homes were set on fire or destroyed. Only one McDonalds seems to have remained intact.

There are corpses scattered around the city, in front of the train station or on the streets.

However, the violence in this street seems to be more systematic.

The victims, all men, dispersed hundreds of meters.

Some corpses lie in piles, like two men left face-up in a puddle. Others died alone. A cyclist in orange gloves was lying on his side, as if he had fallen and could not get up.

Everyone wears civilian clothes, winter coats, jackets, jeans or sweatshirts, and sneakers or boots. Violence is everywhere.

A silver car was riddled with bullets, another was partially crushed, and a van was burnt down along with some corpses.

“These are the results of the Russian occupation,” complained the mayor.

In Bucha, however, the horrors of war have become so routine that locals pass by the corpses and hardly look at them.

– “They are fleeing” – Ukrainian forces regained control of Bucha and began sending aid on Saturday. The burial of the dead can take a long time.

Soldiers distributed food and medicine to the helpless survivors in the back of a military truck.

It was the first delivery in more than a month after Ukraine announced on Saturday that Russian forces had carried out a “rapid withdrawal” from Kiev.

“They’re on the run,” says Yurily Biriukov, a volunteer member of a defense team leading the relief operation.

The residents of Bucha are “still very scared, in shock,” he adds. “People can’t even imagine the conditions they live in this month, the lack of artillery, food, water, no way out,” he says.

A citizen showed AFP the tomb, which he said was a tomb covered with a green cross in the backyard of a house where four people, including a child, were buried.

Most of those who stay in Bucha are elderly.

In an open-air communal kitchen, a group of old men stir borscht and stew on a makeshift stove.

Russian soldiers broke into apartments on the top floor of a Soviet-era building and stole her belongings, asking an old woman if she had a gun.

Then on Tuesday, they saw more than 70 Russian armored vehicles leave the city in the opposite direction from Kiev. The bombing ended on Thursday.

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