As Ukrainians retake areas previously occupied by Russian invading troops, evidence of horror in recent weeks is emerging from the rubble of devastated villages and towns. New victims are discovered on a daily basis. And those lucky enough to have survived the ordeal are told scary stories of kidnapping, rape and torture. Ukraine’s attorney general, Iryna Venediktova, said Monday that her office was investigating 5,800 cases of alleged Russian war crimes, with “more and more” proceedings being opened every day. Russia has denied allegations of war crimes and says its forces are not targeting civilians. However, CNN reporters on the ground in Ukraine have seen first-hand evidence of atrocities in many locations across the country. Here is what we saw.
From Clarissa Ward to Staryi Bykiv
Novyi and Staryi Bykiv are two tiny spots on the map, separated by a small stream. Together they form a dormant community of about 2,000 people that one would expect few Ukrainians – let alone the Russian military – to know. Katerina Andrusha told me that this is why her daughter Victoria decided to leave her apartment on the outskirts of Kiev in Brovary and return here at the beginning of the war. he believed it would be safer at home. But on February 27, residents say Russian forces stormed neighboring villages, turned the local school into a base, vandalized and looted homes and terrorized people here for five weeks. On March 25, Katerina said that Russian soldiers came to her house and took Victoria, claiming that she had information about their forces on her phone. Three days later, Katerina herself was taken prisoner. He said he was kept in a cellar for three days. Blindfolded and terrified, she tried to find out what had happened to her daughter. “I was told that he was in a warm house and that he was working with them and that he would be home soon,” said Katerina. He said he had not seen Victoria since. As she spoke to us, Katerina looked up at the sky in disbelief. She showed us photos of her daughter, a beautiful teacher. “We hope he gets in touch with someone, somewhere,” he said. A few blocks away, we met another mother. Olga Javon’s grief was raw and overwhelming. He knew why we were there and the moment he came out to greet us, he burst into tears. Her boys, Igor, 32, and Oleg, 33, are among the six young men in the village who authorities say were executed by Russian soldiers on February 27. He told us that Russian forces had rounded them up after blowing up a nearby bridge. The Russians held their bodies for nine days before dumping them on the outskirts of the village, with instructions to bury them quickly, he said. “They were very good children,” Olga said. “How I want to see them again.”
From Fred Pleitgen in Bucha
I have seen many terrible things in my career, but some of the things we faced on the outskirts of Kiev after the destruction of Russian troops by Ukrainian forces were among the most painful. In the suburb of Bucha we were one of the first to reach a mass grave dug by the inhabitants while the place was under Russian occupation, because so many inhabitants had been killed and the longest burial ceremonies would be very dangerous in the midst of shootings and bombings. We saw half-buried bodies, legs and arms coming out of the ground. We met a man who was sure that his little brother was buried here. she broke down and could not stop crying. The neighbor who comforted him also cried. These moments of sadness are hard to see – they make you want and cry. Also in Bukha, we were taken to a basement where five bodies had been found – Ukrainians say the men were executed by Russian troops. Some had their hands tied and gunshot wounds to the head or heart. You could still see the horror on their faces. It seemed that the dead wanted the truth of their violent death to be revealed. No matter how many bodies you see, you never forget a single one.
By Ben Wedeman in Kramatorsk
At 10:30 a.m. Last Friday, about 4,000 people in and around Kramatorsk train station were waiting to be evacuated when a rocket exploded over their heads, raining down on pieces of metal. Fragments broke into the crowd, which consisted largely of women, children and the elderly. The latest death toll has risen to more than 50, with more than 100 injured. When we visited the station 48 hours after the explosion, we found the conference still stained with blood, full of scattered dead and wounded.
On a platform, we found a large pool of blood clots at a fracture site with many false teeth nearby. Someone, probably an elderly man, must have been beaten and killed there.
City officials believe Kramatorsk could be surrounded, besieged and pulverized by Russian forces if and when the long-awaited attack to the east accelerates.
The mayor urged residents to leave and before Friday’s strike, about 8,000 people a day boarded trains heading west. The evacuation effort was publicly announced, with people from surrounding towns and villages being called to gather at the Kramatorsk train station, which was the main regional junction. There was nothing secret about it.
Russia has denied that it targeted the station, saying the Tochka-U missile was no longer in use by Russian forces and that it was a Ukrainian missile that struck the station. Military analysts reject the claim.
Part of the missile landed in a small park in front of the station. Someone somewhere wrote on it in Russian “for children”.
While marking and writing slogans on missiles, bombs and shells is a very old tradition, it is not certain what the intended message was.
From Vasco Cotovio to Borodianka
The worst thing I have seen since I arrived in Kyiv almost a month ago should have been the body of a man shown to us in a courtyard in Borodyanka, northwest of Kiev. We were led to the spot by the owner of the house, who had left the city in the first days of the war. She returned as the invading troops withdrew, but found that her house had been looted by Russian soldiers. Behind her garden shed, she showed us a man, with a bag over his head, his hands tied behind his back and his pants down, revealing his underwear and his heavily bruised leg. He had a gunshot wound to the head and a bullet was still next to his body. He appeared to have been tortured and executed by Russian soldiers, although we do not know for sure what happened to him. By that time, we had already seen the now infamous mass grave in Bucha, but the image of this man has stuck with me – I find the person more related than the collective. It is easier to segment, to separate a group from the humanity that was stolen from it. I keep thinking about this man and who he might have been. Did he suffer? Did he have a family? What were his ambitions? What led him to that yard? Did he react, did he protest against the Russian occupation? What if it was me – or my brother, who was living in Kyiv when the invasion began? This man is a beast too much. And then you realize that there are countless others still waiting to be found, under some ruins, in a shallow grave or in someone else’s yard.
