BUCHA – The name of this city is already synonymous with the one-month massacre committed by Russian soldiers here. But the scale of the killings and the disrespect they committed as soon as they became apparent as police, local officials and regular citizens began the gruesome task of clearing Bouha of hundreds of corpses decomposing in streets and parks, apartment buildings and more. locations. As a team from the district attorney’s office moved slowly to Boutsa on Wednesday, investigators uncovered evidence of torture before death, beheading and dismemberment, and deliberate cremation. Some of the harshest violence occurred at a glass factory on the outskirts of the city. On the gravel near a loading dock was the body of Dmytro Chaplyhin, 21, whose abdomen was bruised black and blue, with his hands carrying something resembling cigarette burns. He was eventually shot in the chest, team leader Ruslan Kravchenko said. His body was then turned into a weapon, tied to a cable connected to a mine. “Every day we get about 10 to 20 calls for corpses like this,” Kravchenko said. The team worked quickly but gently, leaning over Chaplyhin’s body and noting small details in the drafts. Some members of the team sifted the monitoring material from the factory, as well as gathered testimonies from eyewitnesses and locals, to better understand what was going on inside the band. On a dirt path behind him there was an even more grotesque scene: two victims, their bodies inflation. A man’s head was cleanly cut, burned and left by his chapped legs. The investigators did not find an identity in either of the two men, whose gloves were still in his coat pockets despite the icy cold. The team called several men from the surrounding area to help identify them. A man who gave his name as Alexei said they were both security guards at the factory. He was told that Russians had come to his house three times drunk and talked about committing sadistic acts against Ukrainians. “They did not behave like men. “They acted like savages,” he said. Down the path, another corpse. Empty bottles of vodka were lying on the grass next to him. It seemed that someone had tried but failed to behead this man as well. The factory is just one part of the bloody city. Fourteen bags of corpses were lined up in Bouha’s cemetery on Wednesday. All but one contained the bodies of people who had been executed or tortured to death, according to Vitaly Chayka, an employee who worked on the dead. Because the cemetery can not afford the number of graves needed, a large refrigerated truck is ready to transport corpses to cemeteries in Kyiv. “There are 58 here and two more in this van,” he said. “They are all men – women and children have fled – but they are all civilians, too. “No one was wearing a uniform.” Chayka moved between the bags, unlocking the zipper so he could categorize their contents based on the extent of decomposition. Only eight of the bodies have been identified so far. His cell phone rang and he soon carried instructions to a new set of corpses someone had discovered. “Sometimes people call us to tell us where the bodies are, or sometimes we go around and ask,” he said. “But there is always more.” Six weeks ago, this suburb appeared outside Kyiv tree-lined streets, simple houses, some high-rises and half an hour drive to the capital. The war made Bouha the front line, with most of the structures being destroyed by artillery. When Russian soldiers were in control for some time, they made the city an arena for blood sports – although many of them died here. On Vokzalna Street near the train station, the burnt shells of dozens of Russian tanks remain a kind of proof of horror. “It was hell on Earth,” said Oleg Yevtushenko, 55, a resident of an apartment building that the military used as a base. He and hundreds of others moved into the basement of a kindergarten, looking for safety in numbers. Russian soldiers singled out men they found outside, often holding them, beating them and sometimes killing them, Yevtushenko said. But within a month, there are things to do outside: Find water, walk the dog. That’s how 47-year-old Vasil Nedashkivskiy died – walking his black Labrador in late March, just three days before the Russians withdrew. Anything that could provoke the soldiers occupying the neighborhood, Yevtushenko said. He was also arrested, making him kneel in front of them for 40 minutes with a gun to his head while accusing him of being a Nazi. “They shot Vassil,” Yevtushenko said. “Exactly”. On Tuesday, locals laid to rest Nedashkivskiy at one of the many funerals on the sidewalk that day. Yevtushenko has counted 20 neighbors who were killed and he and others buried them in the gardens of their apartment buildings or in any open space they find. Next to an improvised tomb of three people — a 20-year-old woman and two men in their 30s — the remnants of Russian diet packages were still rubbish on the ground. Chewing gum, pickles, cigarettes and vodka. Serhiy Morgunov, Kostiantyn Khudov and Serhii Korolchuk contributed to this report.
