THREAD from Bucha.
We met Mykola. He and his wife spent a month living in the cellar of his apartment building. When the Russians arrived, they killed all the men below 50. He’s 53. He told us this shaking with the trauma of it. They gave him 20 minutes to bury his friends.
Three graves sit just opposite his apartment block. Each marked with a wooden plank and a religious icon attached. He wanted to give them whatever dignity he could. ‘But it’s too shallow,’ he says, almost apologetically. ‘I just wanted to protect them from the dogs.’
Two of them were shot in front of him. Another had a grenade thrown at him. His body parts sat on the ground for days, until at last he was allowed to gather them, put them in a bag, and bury them. One of these graves is smaller than the others.
Russians asked for documentation when they got there. Anything in your papers that made them think you were a threat, and you were dead. He said they made the men strip off, looking for tattoos. Perhaps military tattoos.
Russians squatted in their apartments. The regular front rooms of innocent Ukrainian families, turned into the wartime dormitories of drunk, violent thugs. A mess of blankets and old food and contempt.
We went to the mass grave satellite images have seen near the church. We saw bags of bodies dumped on top of other victims who were either wrapped in sheets or nothing at all.
Brave locals went out to collect the dead from the street during the occupation. We were told there could be as many as 90 people in these graves. This whole town is a crime scene.
But a final bit of hope. Aid trucks made it to Bucha today. And residents came out to sing after they made their deliveries. Ludmilla, in blue, is a particular ray of light. Joy.
Pleased to say Mykola has met Ukrainian MP Zhan Beleniuk, who visited Bucha. Authorities are taking notice of what he’s been through and hopefully he’ll get some help.
(Incidentally, Beleniuk is also Ukraine’s only black lawmaker and 2020 Olympic wrestling champion)
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