Caught on camera, tracked by phone: the Russian military unit that killed dozens in Bucha

When videos and photos appeared in April showing the corpses of dozens of civilians scattered along a road in Bucha, Ukrainians and the rest of the world have expressed their horror and indignation. But in Russia, the authorities had a completely different reaction: the denial.

President Vladimir Putin called the gruesome scene a ‘provocation’ and claimed that the Russian military had nothing to do with her.

But an eight-month visual investigation by The New York Times concluded that the perpetrators of the Yablunska street massacre were Russian paratroopers of the 234th Air Attack Regiment led by Lieutenant Colonel Artyom Gorodilov.

There are test proving that the killings were part of a deliberate and systematic effort to ruthlessly secure your way to the capital, Kiev. The soldiers unarmed men interrogated and executed of fighting age and they killed people who inadvertently crossed their pathwhether they were children fleeing with their families, locals hoping to find groceries, or people just trying to cycle home.

Journalists of the time spent months in Bucha after the withdrawal of Russian forces, interviewing residents, collecting large quantities of security camera footage, and obtaining exclusive documents from government sources. In New York, researchers from the Times they analyzed the material and reconstructed minute by minute the murders committed along that road. Some of the most compelling evidence implicating the 234th Regiment included phone records and decoded call signs used by commanders on Russian radio channels.

Everything points to a shameless and bloody campaign that transformed a quiet suburban thoroughfare into what the residents today call the “road of death”.

Historically, journalists and researchers have relied on a single photograph or video to expose wartime atrocities. In 1992, Time magazine featured a photo of an emaciated prisoner in Bosnia on its cover. Nearly twenty years later, video captured the execution of captured Tamil Tiger fighters in the final days of Sri Lanka’s civil war.

What differentiates the evidence discovered at Bucha is the size and the details link an individual unit and its commander to specific kills, with potential implications for the ongoing investigation. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is already investigating possible war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine.

“This type of digital evidence is a game-changer, especially when compared with earlier investigations such as those in the former Yugoslavia,” said Matthew Gillett, a senior lecturer at the University of Essex who previously worked in international criminal courts. “If a case from Ukraine ends up in an international court like the ICC, it will need to have a significant video component.”

These are some of the main results of the research.

A paratrooper unit appears guilty

Although several military units were present in Bucha – and the death toll for the entire city has risen to more than 400 – the Times identified the 234th Regiment, a parachute unit based in the western Russian city of Pskov, as the main culprit in the massacre from Yablunska street.

It is believed that this type of airborne units they are among the best trained and equipped in the Russian military. Evidence of the 234th’s participation includes military hardware, uniform insignia, radio conversations, and ammunition crate delivery slips. Military experts from the Janes Military Intelligence Agency and the Institute for the Study of War provided information on Russian armored vehicles and their markings, as well as tactical operations seen in visual evidence.

Phone records like fingerprints

Bucha residents said that when Russian soldiers questioned them, their phones were often confiscated. Suspecting that the military may have also taken the cell phones of the victims, our journalists obtained from the Ukrainian authorities a database of all calls and messages made from the Bucha region to Russia during the month of March. When we interviewed the victims’ relatives, we recorded their phone numbers and checked whether they were listed in the database. A chilling pattern emerged from this: the soldiers routinely used the victims’ phones to call their family in Russia, often within hours of the killings.

By analyzing the phone numbers dialed by Russian soldiers and uncovering the social media profiles associated with their relatives, the Times confirmed the identities of two dozen paratroopers as members of the 234th Regiment. In several cases, we interviewed their relatives and spoke to some of the soldiers themselves, two of whom confirmed they were from the 234th and served in Bucha. We cross-referenced the discovered information with personal data from official and leaked Russian databases provided by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a Washington DC-based non-profit group that specializes in global security.

Mothers, fathers, children: ordinary citizens as victims

The Times has identified – for the first time – a three dozen people killed on Yablunska street in March. We’ve looked at the death certificates of most of those victims and… the predominant cause of death was gunshot wounds.

The victims were inhabitants of Bucha or nearby towns, of all ages and professions.. Among those killed by Russian paratroopers were Tamila Mishchenko, 52, and her daughter Anna, 14, on 5 March. They were part of a group of four women fleeing Bucha when Russian soldiers shot down his blue minivan.

Most of the victims we identified on Yablunska Street they were Ukrainian civilians or prisoners of war. His murder could be judged by the International Criminal Court and considered a war crime under international humanitarian law. Due to their systematic and widespread nature, the Bucha they could also constitute crimes against humanity. Russia has not joined the International Criminal Court and is unlikely to cooperate in potential future cases involving Russian soldiers.

The murders weren’t random acts of violence.

The Yablunska Street victims were not killed in the crossfire between Russian and Ukrainian forces, nor were they shot down by mistake in the fog of war. Our research proves itRussian troops intentionally killed them, apparently as part of a systematic “mop-up” operation to secure the road to the capital. Dozens of civilians were shot dead. In other cases, men suspected of having ties to the Ukrainian military they were captured and executed.

Neglect in the chain of command

the lieutenant colonel Artyom Gorodilov, commander of the 234th regiment, was supervising the operations of the parachute unit in Bucha. Times investigators obtained documents confirming the call sign he used when he radioed with his troops. Security cameras located above Yablunska Street caught some of those conversations over the radio, proving that Lieutenant Colonel Gorodilov was in charge, and two 234th soldiers who served in Bucha confirmed in interviews that he was there.

After the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kiev region, Lieutenant Colonel Gorodilov he was promoted to colonel in April by the then head of the Airborne Forces, Colonel-General Andrey Serdyukov. The ceremony came days after shocking images of Bucha came to light.

Neither General Serdyukov nor Colonel Gorodilov’s immediate superior at the time, Major General Sergey Chubarykin, publicly announced any investigation into the massacre in the city, despite global outrage over the footage. As senior officers, they are ultimately accountable for the actions of the forces under their command. Failing to stop and investigate the atrocities at Bucha, ultimately could be responsible.

The Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian Embassy in Washington and Colonel Gorodilov They did not respond to requests for comment.