When my parents were killed
According to local authorities, 458 bodies have been recovered from the town, including nine children under the age of 18. Among the victims, 419 people were killed with weapons and 39 appeared to have died of natural causes, possibly related to the occupation. A memorial wall was installed in Bucha with 501 names of killed residents. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights documented the unlawful killings, including summary executions, of at least 73 civilians in Bucha. Photos showed corpses of civilians, lined up with their hands bound behind their backs, shot at close range. An inquiry by Radio Free Europe reported the use of a basement beneath a campground as a torture chamber. Many bodies were found mutilated and burnt, and girls as young as fourteen reported being raped by Russian soldiers. In intercepted conversations, Russian soldiers referred to these operations involving hunting down people in lists, filtration, torture, and execution as zachistka ("cleansing"). Ukraine has asked the International Criminal Court to investigate what happened in Bucha as part of its ongoing investigation of the invasion to determine whether a series of Russian war crimes or crimes against humanity were committed. The massacre was described by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as genocide.
Russian authorities have denied responsibility and instead claimed that Ukraine faked footage of the event or staged the killings itself as a false flag operation, and have claimed that the footage and photographs of dead bodies were a "staged performance". These assertions by Russian authorities have been debunked as false by various groups and media organisations. Additionally, eyewitness accounts from residents of Bucha said that the Russian army carried out the killings. Human Rights Watch released a report finding Russian Armed Forces guilty of summary executions, unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, and torture.
My parents were late in getting to Kyiv from their friends’ home, and were forced to take the best route to get to where I was living at the time, studying at university. Through the city runs a major highway M 07, which was to my father the quickest route to the apartment I was sharing. It is almost four years ago now, they were shot at by a Russian army tank (234th Air Assault Regiment) and the car destroyed and they were killed.
I knew they were coming to visit but when they didn’t arrive I called my brother, and he looked to find out what had happened to them. He called the office of the city mayor, and was put on hold. Almost three years after they were killed, my brother Viacheslav (Eduardovych H..) , was killed at the front, resisting the Russian clawing tactic of territorial capture or acquisition. He was a sergeant in the army.
Russian authorities have denied responsibility and instead claimed that Ukraine faked footage of the event or staged the killings itself as a false flag operation, and have claimed that the footage and photographs of dead bodies were a "staged performance". These assertions by Russian authorities have been debunked as false by various groups and media organisations. Additionally, eyewitness accounts from residents of Bucha said that the Russian army carried out the killings. Human Rights Watch released a report finding Russian Armed Forces guilty of summary executions, unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, and torture.
My parents were late in getting to Kyiv from their friends’ home, and were forced to take the best route to get to where I was living at the time, studying at university. Through the city runs a major highway M 07, which was to my father the quickest route to the apartment I was sharing. It is almost four years ago now, they were shot at by a Russian army tank (234th Air Assault Regiment) and the car destroyed and they were killed.
I knew they were coming to visit but when they didn’t arrive I called my brother, and he looked to find out what had happened to them. He called the office of the city mayor, and was put on hold. Almost three years after they were killed, my brother Viacheslav (Eduardovych H..) , was killed at the front, resisting the Russian clawing tactic of territorial capture or acquisition. He was a sergeant in the army.
