Number of people killed and tortured in Bucha is not finalized, law enforcers still investigating Russian crimes
Ukrainian law enforcement officers found 422 bodies of murdered civilians after the liberation of Bucha in Kyiv Oblast from Russian troops. In total, 1,190 bodies were found in the Bucha district. This figure is not final, said Andriy Nebytov, Deputy Head of the National Police and Chief of the Criminal Police, during the national telethon.
He emphasized that about a thousand civilians killed by the occupiers died violently: either they were shot or died of mine-blast injuries. Nebytov also noted that 514 residents of Kyiv Oblast are currently missing, and 180 bodies remain unidentified.
"We understand that there were positions of the Russian army around Bucha, where they took people, tortured and killed them, where we found buried bodies of those tortured. And we realize that these are probably not the last findings. Because the number of people who are currently missing is unfortunately very high," Nebytov said.
The head of the criminal police also said that law enforcement officers have opened 23,000 criminal proceedings on war crimes committed by Russia in Kyiv Oblast. In total, since the beginning of the full-scale war, on February 24, 2022, law enforcement officers have opened 116,000 such proceedings.
Russian atrocities in Bucha
On March 31, 2022, the Ukrainian military liberated Bucha and the entire Bucha community in Kyiv Oblast from Russian forces. After that, information about the Russians' atrocities gradually began to emerge: journalists and government officials began publishing videos and photos of the dead lying in the streets.
According to the police, Russian snipers shot people from tanks and armored personnel carriers, despite the white armbands that the Russian military forced people to wear. Many Ukrainians were found dead in their homes and apartments from mine-blast injuries. Bodies were also found in mass graves, often with signs of torture.
In March 2023, Zelenskyy said that more than 1,400 people, including 37 children, had died in Bucha and the Bucha district due to the Russian occupation.
According to German intelligence, intercepted radio messages from the Russian military about the massacres in Bucha indicate that these were not accidental actions or acts of individual soldiers, but a tactic or even a strategy of Russia to intimidate Ukrainians.