Residents of Bucha describe a series of horrors

BUCHA, Ukraine – According to his wife, it was chilly when Russian troops arrived for Oleg Abramov, so they killed him after stealing his sweater.

Iryna Abramova, 42, was with Oleg and her father at their home in Bucha, near Kyiv, a few days after the invasion of Ukraine, when troops tossed a grenade through a window, she claimed. The three fled into the cold, still wearing their slippers, to get away from the fire.

As she stood in front of her home in the now-devastated hamlet, Abramova told NBC News that “they forced him take off his sweater, then they placed him on his knees and shot him in the head.” “Half of his skull was missing. When I got out on the street, his head was still gushing blood.”

Witnesses and eyewitnesses in Bucha told a news channel of random executions, intimidation, and looting by Russian military.

“I started screaming, ‘Kill me, too,” Abramova recounted, her fists pressed to her chest.

She was unable to recover Oleg’s corpse for a month due to sniper fire and Russian forces patrolling the streets, she added, but it has finally been hauled away by Ukrainian officials. She hopes to recover it so that it can be properly buried.

As his wife related his death, Oleg’s blood soaked the sidewalk outside his home.
On her phone, Abramova displayed photos of her spouse. In one of photos, Abramov is cradling a cat while wearing an orange construction helmet and yellow vest.

“He liked cats a lot,” Abramova added as she flipped through the images.
Her spouse was a welder, and they led a happy life, according to Ambramova. He never served in the military or possessed a firearm.

She believes her spouse was slain by Russian forces in order to frighten others in Bucha into submission.

On April 2, Ukrainian forces reclaimed control of the town, but Russian troops besieged Bucha for five weeks, destroying much of it. NBC News spotted damaged or destroyed buildings, smashed automobiles, and new burials in people’s backyards while driving throughout town.

Following the Russian retreat, images from the town’s streets and homes startled the globe. Some images show bodies dressed in civilian clothing laying on blood-stained sidewalks, their wrists bound behind their backs in some cases.

Hundreds of people are believed to have been murdered in Bucha, according to Ukrainian officials, who accuse Moscow of war crimes. Russia denies targeting the town’s population, claiming the claimed crimes were orchestrated by Ukraine to discredit its forces.

Valentyna’s three-story, orange-walled building has shattered windows.

Russian forces went from apartment to apartment while in charge of the town, she added, particularly looking for young males.

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Seeing scenes of destructions and hearing accounts of extreme Russian brutality in Bucha this morning. pic.twitter.com/EykIuGWKMm

— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) April 5, 2022

“They were bashing up doors with axes and sledgehammers,” said Valentyna, 67, who requested anonymity because she did not want her last name used.

Valentyna claims she and a companion buried four individuals here, two of whom were long-time neighbours. She had no idea who the other two were, but she decided to bury them nonetheless. She claims that Russian military killed all four of them for reasons she does not understand. NBC News was unable to determine how the four persons perished.

She pointed to handmade messages on residential doors that said that the residents were innocent citizens.

She responded, “Peaceful people survived through misery here.” “I’ve used up all of my tears. “My heart aches.”

A new burial with a green crucifix and a pink scarf tied around it was a few feet distant.

Valentyna murmured, her voice wavering, “Please don’t let this happen again.”

In the midst of Bucha’s grief, shock, and sorrow, one thought persists: why the violence from a people so near to Ukraine?

“I’ve always assumed they were our brothers,” Abramova explained. “They stated that they would not attack civilians. I’m not sure what to say because I’m half-Russian.”
“They said, ‘We are Russians, we came to liberate you,'” she continued.

Richard Engel and Marc Smith contributed reporting from Bucha, while Yuliya Talmazan contributed from London.

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