Stories from Ukraine: Bucha resident recalls how Russians turned neighborhood into a street of death

Reports from Ukraine: This feature is part of an original Milwaukee Independent editorial series that recorded news from cities across Ukraine, including Milwaukee's sister city of Irpin, in May 2022. It was the first and, at that time, only news organization in Wisconsin that traveled to the country since it was invaded. The purpose of this journalism project was to document personal stories and events that detailed or showed the conditions of the war at that time, and their connections to Milwaukee. mkeind.com/reportsfromukraine

The very nature of war is its brutality, but there has existed a system of rules established by international treaties for how they are conducted. Those agreements in no way sanitize the deadly nature of war, but do set limits and boundaries.

The very nature of war is also insanity, and it often extends outside of military-on-military engagements to affect civilian populations. But not since Nazi Germany’s barbaric genocide of the Jewish population in Poland has the world seen a great power focus on slaughtering innocent families until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

War crimes are inexcusable, but have historically been isolated incidents. With Russia, overwhelming evidence has shown that the entire military strategy of the nation’s dictator is based on the execution of war crimes.

At the beginning of the invasion, many reports surfaced about executions and rapes conducted by Russian forces. But the systematic scale of the terror and torture was not clear until Russian forces were defeated by the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

After being prevented from capturing the capital city of Kyiv, and driven out of the country in the north around March 30, the world was shocked by the level of Russian inhumanity discovered in the small town of Bucha.

The city of Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv about 21 miles north, borders with Milwaukee’s sister city of Irpin. It was in Irpin that the local Territorial Guard and the Ukrainian Armed Forces stopped the Russian invasion aiming at the capital. Both cities suffered terrible destruction in weeks of battle. But Russian forces never had a foothold in Irpin like they did in Bucha.

Unable to advance, Russian troops stalled along the invasion route took out the frustration for their military failures on the civilian population who had no had time to escape. Bucha became a slaughterhouse, and images of systematic executions by Russian soldiers made international headlines. The city that had hosted a population of 36,000 became synonymous with war crimes.

One place in particular, Yablonska Street, was a focal point of the global outrage against the Russians. Named after Tatiana Yablonska, the great Ukrainian painter who died in 2005, multiple bodies were found scattered along the intersecting blocks.

That was where we met Ivan, a 72-year-old resident of Bucha. We had heard waves of terrible stories and first hand accounts of what took place in that area, along with the horrific images documenting the Russian savagery. But standing where so much evil had taken place, on a tranquil day while Ivan tended to gardening in his yard, was an emotional and surreal experience.

Ivan told the Milwaukee Independent team that he was at home when the war began. He described how the area had been fire bombed, and for safety he was forced to hide in his basement.

“They destroyed all of our infrastructure. There was no water, no light, no gas. You couldn’t even charge a mobile phone. I had to go to the neighbor’s house, who had a gas-powered generator, to charge my phone so I could communicate with loved ones,” said Ivan. “That was when my daughter called. I would not have thought to go anywhere if not for her. I am alive now because of my daughter.”

The war had been raging on the outskirts of the city since around February 24, when the invasion began. Ivan said that his daughter in Irpin called him and said that a huge column of Russian tanks were moving towards Bucha. He was able to escape before the Russians occupied the city on February 26.

“I left the city unprepared, fled with just what I was wearing. A neighbor and daughter stayed behind. I learned that the Russians locked them in the basement, and used the home as a fortification. It was the same everywhere, they broke down doors and settled in our homes. No one who remained was released from the city. It was impossible to leave the house. Anyone who left or tried to leave was shot without warning,” said Ivan. “The streets were littered with the bodies of people who tried to flee the occupation.”

He recalled stories of the Nazis during World War II. They had passed through Bucha on the way to Moscow, and when they retreated back to Germany. Even they had not inflicted the level of destruction that the Russians had in the early weeks of March.

“My neighbor’s daughter was seriously ill and needed medical attention. Her father pleaded, knelt before the occupiers, cried and begged to be allowed to leave the city. He was allowed to go, but on the condition that if he did not return in two days the house would be blown up,” Ivan. “They left and did not return, because the father realized that he would be killed and the house destroyed regardless.”

Ivan pointed across the street at the ruins of neighbor’s house. He then focused our attention to the other side of the road. He explained that the owners of all of the houses were dead. They had not had time to leave. They were shot or simply blown up when artillery hit their homes.

After the Russians occupied the city, they were unable to advance because of the fierce resistance stopping them in Irpin. Further down the street was an apartment building, with its top floor blackened.

“A military man from the Territorial Defense lived there. He was hiding in his top-floor apartment, waiting for the right opportunity,” said Ivan. “One day he shot the occupiers from his apartment. But after he was spotted, the Russians turned their tanks towards the apartment and destroyed it along with the building.”

Ivan said that before returning, he did not know if his house survived. He had lost all connections with anyone in the area, because no one remained.

“There was a trench in my garden, where the Russian occupiers hid their equipment. And there were graves. In my basement, I found the bodies of six tortured people. It was the same situation in many houses around the neighborhood,” said Ivan. “Eventually, the relevant government services came and took the corpses away for identification and burial.”

All the doors of Ivan’s home were broken, and his valuables were stolen or destroyed.
Even the surviving houses were so filthy from the Russian occupation that their condition was unbelievable.

Since the city’s liberation, Yablonska Street is commonly known as “Avenue of the Bodies” and “Street of the Dead.” The asphalt was sprinkled with corpses, destroyed Russian tanks, and fallen electrical poles, making it impossible to even walk down the street.

By the time the Milwaukee Independent team arrived, the horrors along the streets had been cleared away. But the damaged and empty homes remained. Activity was returning to the lifeless area, even though the wounds of war meant that there was no returning to normal. There was no one left to return.

“The Russians came to clean, tidy houses in a loving neighborhood,” added Ivan. “They left behind ruins, piles of garbage, and death.”

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