Nearly 300 people in total had to be buried “in mass graves” in Boutcha, a city northwest of kyiv, the scene of fierce fighting which has just been taken over by Ukrainian soldiers. This is what its mayor, Anatoly Fedorouk, told AFP on Saturday April 2. “In Boutcha, we have already buried 280 people in mass graves”because it was impossible to do so in the three cemeteries of the municipality, all within firing range of the Russian soldiers, Anatoly Fedorouk said on the telephone.
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“In some streets, we see 15 to 20 corpses on the ground”corn “I can’t say how many there are still in courtyards, behind the palisades”continued the mayor. “As long as the deminers have not come to check them, it is not recommended to pick them up” because they can be trapped, he further said. “These are the consequences of the Russian occupation, of the actions” of the enemy, released Anatoly Fedorouk.
AFP saw the lifeless bodies of at least 20 men in civilian clothes lying on a street in Boutcha on Saturday. One of the men had his hands tied and the bodies were strewn for several hundred yards. The cause of their death could not be determined immediately, but one person had a large head wound.
Some of the dead were lying on their backs, while others were on their stomachs. The skin on the faces looked waxy, suggesting that the corpses had been there for at least several days.
In recent days, Russian forces have withdrawn from several localities near the capital after the failure of their attempt to encircle it. Ukraine announced that Butcha had been “liberated”but this city was devastated by the fighting: AFP journalists were able to see gaping holes caused by shells in apartment buildings and many wrecked cars.