Eyes dark and red from lack of sleep, Artem shows a restrained anger. “I feel empty and I have rage”, he explains in a deep, cavernous voice, hesitant at times. The young Ukrainian fled Boutcha, in the suburbs of kyiv, on March 12. On Sunday April 3, the international community discovered the images shot in this city from which the Russian army withdrew a few days earlier: dozens of civilian bodies strewn about the streets of the city, some with their hands tied behind their backs.
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For Artem, civilians suffered horror at the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers. “There were throwing of grenades in cellars, mines were installed in front of the gates of dwellings and, on leaving their homes, civilians jumped on these mineshe says slowly. There was also a tank. He passed and shot at the cars. The Russian soldiers could clearly see that there were children. I don’t understand how it was possible not to see them.”
“How can you kill a woman who tries to run away with her children?”
Artem, Ukrainian who fled Boutcha on March 12at franceinfo
Artem lived under Russian occupation for seventeen days, before leaving on foot with his sister, his mother and a neighbour. They passed through Boutcha, which was already strewn with corpses. Moscow, for its part, claims that it is a staging of Ukrainian power. However, according to Artem, it was indeed Russian soldiers who committed these crimes.
The young Ukrainian describes sometimes very young men who, for more than a month, terrorized a population taking refuge in basements, cellars or makeshift shelters. “Often when I saw Russian soldiers, they were drunk. They ordered us to dig holes and hide in them because our neighborhood was going to be bombed. If we didn’t hide, they told us that these holes would be our graves. “he recalls.
He currently claims that some of these Russian soldiers “were looking for women to satisfy their desire but, thank God, most of the women and children had already left”. He seems relieved that the images of Boutcha have been released: “Now the whole world knows.” In this conflict, Artem lost two friends: Vitali, who had taken up arms, and Sacha, hit by a shell while bringing water to an old lady. He has no news of about thirty acquaintances in his neighborhood.
Anatoli Fedorouk was also a direct witness to what happened in Boutcha. The mayor of the city no longer knew what to do with the 350 corpses he discovered. On Saturday evening, he hastily buried them near the church. “We can’t even count them anymore”says Anatoliy Kushnirchuk, army chaplain, who took charge of the burial. He describes barbaric and documented acts which clearly amount to war crimes. “Several of these corpses are in cellars or in places where Russian terrorists threw grenades”he continues, explaining that “many bodies” present in the streets “were mined by the Russians”.
Faced with the magnitude and horror of the situation, Anatoly Fedoruk calls for help. Boutcha’s gravedigger needs respirator, rubber gloves and body bags.