- Info: Join us Sunday at 11:00 am
- Call Us: +1 (519) 837-1642
- Email:praywith@holyprotectionguelph.ca
The Russian column of tanks and armored personnel carriers sped along a residential street in Bucha, a tree-lined suburb of the capital Kyiv. That was February 27th.
A short time later, that same line of vehicles lay in ruins, the wreckage smoldering, after being ambushed by Ukrainian forces.
There was no sign of the column’s soldiers. In a video showing the destruction, a man could be heard muttering: “I wish you all to burn in hell.”
But that Ukrainian victory was to be short-lived; a month-long occupation of Bucha by Russian forces followed.
The suburb’s name has this week become a byword for war crimes, after accounts of summary executions, brutality, and indiscriminate shelling emerged in the wake of Russia’s hasty retreat, as the Kremlin shifts its focus away from the Ukrainian capital to the country’s east.
In recent days, Moscow has claimed — without evidence — that the atrocities in Bucha were staged — calling it “fake,” and part of a “planned media campaign.”
But witnesses who spoke to CNN said the carnage in the town began weeks ago.
And the devastation there bears similarities to Russia’s playbook in other towns and cities in Ukraine, where officials say civilian infrastructure has come under attack — with power supplies knocked out, water cut off and communications towers damaged — making it harder for local residents to hold out against Russian troops. But Ukraine has not surrendered.
There have also been reports of looting, disappearances, and evidence of the indiscriminate killings of civilians since the war began.

Horrors on the road
Bucha — once a magnet for young families due to its affordable homes, green spaces, and good schools — and other areas nearby, turned into a living nightmare in March as Russian troops stormed the region.
Residents there share difficult to verify stories of looted homes, senseless murders, and failed escapes via Kyiv’s Zhytomyr highway — now a graveyard for wrecked tanks and burned-out cars.
In Bucha, pitch-roofed homes crumbled under the force of Russian artillery strikes.
Residents say they had no choice but to turn their vegetable patches and front yards into makeshift graves since the presence of Russian forces made it impossible to reach the morgue or local cemetery.

Officials say Russian forces bedded down in the sanatorium around the second week of March. Several foxholes, trenches, and positions for armored vehicles remain visible around the site; leftover Russian rations have been abandoned nearby.
Soldiers have daubed the exterior walls of the facility with the letter “V,” a symbol used by Russia’s Eastern Military District, and used synonymously with the letter “Z,” as an emblem for Russia’s “special military operation.”
The gruesome scene proved too much for Vladislav Minchenko, who vomited after volunteering to help remove the bodies from the basement on Monday.
“This is not what we learned in school,” said Minchenko, 44, who worked as a painter before the war. Holding up his hands, Minchenko told CNN the number of dead bodies he had dealt with since the start of the conflict numbered in the “hundreds — not dozens — hundreds.”
Copyright Ⓒ 2023 Alex Maisiura - All Rights Reserved
Leave Your Comments