Ukrainians marked the anniversary of the liberation of Bucha, a town near Kyiv, with calls for remembrance and justice after a brutal Russian occupation. The town has come to symbolize the atrocities committed by Moscow’s military since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Ukrainian troops who retook the town found hundreds of bodies, some of which showed signs of torture, in a mass grave, on the streets, and in yards and homes.
Russian soldiers on intercepted phone conversations called the operation “zachistka” or cleansing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy handed out medals to soldiers, police officers, doctors, teachers, and emergency workers in Bucha, as well as to the families of two soldiers killed during the defense of the Kyiv region. More than 1,400 civilian deaths, including 37 children, were documented in the Bucha district by Ukrainian authorities. More than 175 people were found in mass graves and alleged torture chambers.
Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin alleged that almost 100 Russian soldiers are suspected of war crimes, and indictments have been issued for 35 of them. Meanwhile, fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces continued, with Russia using its long-range arsenal to bombard several areas, killing at least two civilians and damaging homes. The Kremlin-allied president of neighboring Belarus raised the stakes when he said Russian strategic nuclear weapons might be deployed in his country, along with part of Moscow’s tactical nuclear arsenal.
