Soon the Russians occupy what was once a peaceful town. Ukrainian volunteers find themselves surrounded. On the night of March 4, 2022, they remain in a house, trying to stay in touch with their families. Andriy Dvornikov sends an SMS message to his wife. Anatoliy Prykhodko calls his wife, and around 10:00 in the morning, he sends her a last message from Valeriy Kotenko's house.

Soon, the Russians break in. These are so-called sweeps - supposedly searches for Ukrainian activists and territorial defense fighters. Russian troops find all nine men. They take their mobile phones and shoes.

By force, they are taken to an old office building. Here, at 144 Yablunska Street, the Russian military set up a "headquarters." At around 11:00, surveillance cameras capture the occupiers, threatening with weapons, leading the 9 detained men somewhere.

Since the beginning of the occupation of the city, the building on Yablunska Street has been used for repression against the population. When the captured volunteers are brought to the occupiers' headquarters, there are already several people gathered from the surrounding buildings. They witness the crime committed by the occupiers against the group of men who were detained.

They are forced to kneel in front of the building, shirts and sweaters are put over their heads, and they are immediately beaten. The Russians believe that they were preparing an attack on them. They kill one of the detainees - 28-year-old Vitaliy Karpenko becomes the first victim. When one of the captives admits that they belong to the territorial defense, the beatings intensify.

Ivana Skyba is brought into the house, they put a bucket on his head and smash bricks onto it. They order him to kneel and place bricks on his back until he falls. Meanwhile, they interrogate Andriy Verbovyi. Ivan hears the Russian say to Andriy that he will shoot his leg. After this, a gunshot is heard.

Later, they take Ivan outside with other illegally detained people. Andriy is also taken there, bleeding. The Russians argue whether to finish him off or not.

Locals are also on the street, held separately. Witnesses recall that the occupiers called the volunteers the mythical "nationalists" whom they came to fight against in Ukraine.

The occupiers bring in another young man whom they caught separately. Only the pleas of his mother, Iryna Volynets, and the assurances of other detainees that he had no connection to their activities, saved the man's life.

But the fate of the other captives was decided. The men were led to a small courtyard at the corner where the body of a person who had been shot earlier was already lying. The Russians began to mock their victims.

Anatoliy Prykhodko tried to escape, but he was killed. Afterward, the occupiers open fire on the other prisoners. Only Ivan Skyba manages to survive, but he is wounded in the side. The Russians do not check the condition of the executed people and do not linger in the courtyard. Waiting for them to leave the scene, he removes shoes from the body of the man who was killed earlier, crawls to the fence, and climbs over it.

Ivan hides in an abandoned house. It turns out that the Russians have also stopped there. Skyba manages to convince them that he is the owner of the house and that he was injured during the shelling. They believe him and decide to provide assistance. They take him back to the headquarters, from which he barely escaped. However, he does not find his tormentors there. Medics treat his wounds and place him with civilians in the basement. A few days later, they allow them to leave the city.

In addition to the aforementioned cases of executions, Russian military personnel are responsible for other crimes, including indiscriminate shooting, complete disregard for civilian safety, or criminal motives. Peaceful residents of the city became their victims even before the start of the occupation. For example, on the morning of February 27, 2022, 56-year-old Tetiana Pomazenko was killed in the courtyard of a house on Vokzalna Street. After the city was captured on March 4, 2022, 43-year-old Yevhen Petrashenko, a sales manager and father of two children, was killed in his own apartment (203A Yablunska Street) by Russian soldiers who shot him in the back during an illegal search. At around the same time, 41-year-old electrician Dmytro Konovalov was also killed. He and his relatives were hiding in the basement at 203B Yablunska Street but he went upstairs to smoke. Suddenly, Russian soldiers appeared on the street and shot him without warning. Local resident Iryna Abramova testifies that on March 5, 2022, Russian soldiers executed her husband, 40-year-old Oleh, after setting their house on fire at the intersection of Vokzalna and Yablunska streets. On the same day, they shot 48-year-old Viktor Koval in his own house at 32 Vesniana Street.

The indiscriminate shooting by Russians for any reason posed an additional threat to civilians. For example, on March 5, 2022, on Yablunska Street, they shot and killed Volodymyr Rubailo, who was running away from them with a 9-year-old girl. The child was wounded as a result of the shooting. On March 7, 2022, 32-year-old Vasyl Yushchenko was injured while smoking near the window in his relatives' apartment. Only urgent assistance from neighbors and evacuation to Kyiv saved his life.

The fact that Russian military personnel committed crimes throughout their stay in Bucha is evidenced by photo and video evidence. The bodies of the murdered people on Yablunska Street, which were recorded on video immediately after the liberation of Bucha, caused a great resonance. At the same time, satellite imagery confirms that the killing of civilians in the city began in the first days of the occupation. Bodies were recorded on the streets as early as March 9-11, 2022.

On March 12, 2022, Russian military killed 61-year-old Ilya Navalnyi in Bucha, who lived at 203V Yablunska Street. Witnesses reported hearing gunshots in the yard and later found the man's body near the house with head and back injuries. On the morning of March 19, 2022, near the house at 203A Yablunska Street, Russians shot and killed 51-year-old worker Leonid Goy as he stepped out of cover to call his family. Witnesses reported that on March 20, 2022, occupiers shot and killed 37-year-old Artem, a Bucha resident, when he went into his garage in search of supplies to share with his neighbors.

A few days later (probably on March 22 or 23, 2022), 44-year-old builder Leonid Bondarchuk was killed in the building at 203A Yablunska Street. Russian military came to the basement where people were hiding and ordered all phones to be handed over for inspection. Bondarchuk went upstairs with his mobile devices. After that, witnesses heard gunfire and an explosion. Later, the man's mutilated body was found on the stairs. Judging by the nature of the damage, the Russians threw a grenade there.

On the morning of March 25, 2022, Alexander Yeremich, a 43-year-old railway inspector and father of two, was killed in Bucha. Russian military found photos of the city's destruction on the man's phone and shot him.

All of this is just a small part of the losses that Bucha suffered as a result of Russian aggression. The mass burials in the city testify to the scale of Russian crimes. From the fraternal grave site located near the Church of Andrew the Apostle, 116 bodies were exhumed, of which 2 belonged to Ukrainian military personnel, and the vast majority of those buried were civilians.