Wiki:
Reports
Initial video footage following the Russian withdrawal was posted to social media on Saturday, 2 April, showing mass civilian casualties. According to Bucha's mayor Anatoly Fedoruk, "hundreds of Russian soldiers" were also among the bodies found in the region.[14] Subsequently, further evidence emerged of war crimes committed by Russian forces while they occupied the region. According to The Times and The Washington Post, eighteen mutilated bodies of murdered men, women, and children were found in a basement. Footage released by the Ukrainian army appeared to show a torture chamber in the basement, with bodies having cut-off ears and teeth pulled out.[15] Corpses of other killed civilians were left in the road.[14][16]
Residents and the mayor of the city said that the victims had been killed by Russian troops. Many of the victims appeared to have been going about their daily routines, carrying shopping bags.[3] Footage showed civilians dead with their hands bound. Other footage showed a dead man next to a bicycle.[17] Journalists entering the city themselves discovered the bodies of over a dozen people, in civilian clothes.[18] CNN,[19] the BBC,[20] and AFP,[21] have released video documentation of numerous dead bodies of civilians in the streets and yards in Bucha, some of them with tied arms or legs.
Agence France-Presse journalists reported observing at least 20 bodies on a single street in Bucha, with some victims bound and reported mounting evidence of civilian killings.[22] The mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk, said that at least 280 individuals from the city had to be buried in mass graves.[13][23][24][18] Local residents had to bury another 57 bodies in another mass grave.[13]
Civilians indicated many of the survivors had been hiding from the Russians in basements, too scared to come out. Some of them had no light or electricity for weeks, using candles for heating water and cooking. They came out of hiding only when it was clear the Russians had left, welcoming the arrival of Ukrainian troops.[3]
Evidence appeared to indicate that the Russians had singled out Ukrainian civilian men and killed them in an organised fashion, with many of their bodies in particular found with their hands tied behind their backs.[13] The BBC said of the 20 bodies on the street, some had been shot in the temple and some bodies had been run over by a tank.[25] On 2 April, an AFP reporter stated he had seen at least twenty bodies of civilians lying in the streets of Bucha, with two of the bodies having tied hands, suggesting a summary execution.[23] Fedoruk said that these individuals had all been shot in the back of the head.[18] A Human Rights Watch spokesperson said that it had documented at least one "unmistakable case" of summary execution by Russian soldiers on 4 March.[13][26]
A report published by The Kyiv Independent also included a photo and information about one man and two or three naked women under a blanket whose bodies Russian soldiers tried to burn on the side of a road before fleeing;[13] Ukrainian officials said the women had been raped and the bodies burnt.[7] The Guardian cited eyewitness accounts claiming that the Russian forces placed Ukrainian children on their vehicles while moving and used them as human shields.[27] At around 7:15 AM on 5 March, a pair of cars carrying two families trying to escape were spotted by Russian soldiers as the vehicles turned onto Chkalova Street. Russian forces proceeded to open fire at the convoy, killing a man in the second vehicle. The front car was hit by machine-gun fire, instantly killing two children and their mother.[28]
Residents, talking to Human Rights Watch following the retreat of the Russian forces, described the treatment of people in the city during the short occupation: Russian soldiers went door to door, questioning people, destroying their possessions, and looting their clothes to wear themselves.[6] Civilians were fired upon when leaving their homes for food and water, and would be ordered back into their homes by Russian troops, despite a lack of basic necessities such as water and heat due to the destruction of local infrastructure. Russian armed vehicles would arbitrarily fire into buildings in the city. Russian troops refused medical aid to injured civilians. A mass grave was dug for local victims, and the troops carried out extrajudicial executions.[6]
Russian forces killed three unarmed Ukrainian civilians in a car on 4 March who were on their way back from having delivered food to a dog shelter.[29]
According to a local resident, Russian soldiers robbed civilians and killed anybody who had tattoos indicating their participation in the War in Donbas. The resident also said that Russian troops killed people with Ukrainian nationalist tattoos. According to his account, in the last week of the occupation, Kadyrovites were killing every civilian they met.[30]
Inconsistent reporting by Russia's Ministry of Defence
On 1 April 2022, Russia's Ministry of Defence official channel Zvezda reported that Russian forces controlled Bucha.[31] However, on 3 April 2022, Zvezda backtracked from its previous statement and claimed Russian troops left Bucha on 30 March 2022.[32]