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Survivors Describe the Russian Atrocities in Bucha: “Do You Want to Die Quickly or Slowly?”

Life amid the rubble: A family in Bucha on their way to visit relatives. Foto: Roman Pilipey / epa

“Do You Want to Die Quickly or Slowly?” Survivors Describe the Russian Atrocities in Bucha

Russian soldiers shot and killed hundreds of civilians in the town of Bucha, just north of Kyiv. DER SPIEGEL went there to talk with survivors about their shocking experiences under the occupiers.

By Christian Esch und Thore Schröder in Bucha, Ukraine

08.04.2022, 18.49 Uhr

Irina Gavrilyuk, 42, has returned home. But what does it mean to return when there can be no going back to the way things were? Irina’s house on Ivan Franko Street is still standing, to be sure. But everything in and around it is dead. The bodies of three men, all shot dead, are lying in her yard. One of them is Sergei, Irina’s husband. Another is Roman, Irina’s brother. She doesn’t know who the third man is. Irina’s dogs are also dead. One of them was shot and is lying in the wheelbarrow, the other is in the destroyed doghouse. “They destroyed all life,” says Irina. “How can I move back here?”

It is the first day that Irina is seeing the wreckage of her old life. Bucha, a quiet, leafy town near Kyiv was liberated at the end of March. The Russian troops who occupied the place for a month have withdrawn. But with the town’s liberation, the full extent of their crimes have been laid bare: for Irina, who had fled to western Ukraine; for her neighbors, who were unable to leave their homes – and for Europe and the world.

Since Vladimir Putin sent his troops across the border into Ukraine on Feb. 24 – for a “special military operation,” as he described it – there have been several indications that war crimes have been committed. Russian troops have demolished the port city of Mariupol and fired indiscriminately at residential districts in Kharkiv. They have abducted civilians, raped women, looted shops and homes – and they have killed.