On 27 February 2022 — three days after the full-scale invasion began — Russian armoured columns entered Bucha, a quiet commuter town 30 kilometres northwest of Kyiv. They would stay for 33 days.
On 31 March 2022, Ukrainian forces recaptured the town. What they found became one of the defining documents of this war.
The occupation in numbers
- 458 civilians confirmed killed in Bucha during the occupation, according to Ukrainian prosecutors
- Bodies found on streets, in yards, in basements — many with hands tied, signs of torture
- Entire families executed in their homes
- Women and girls subjected to systematic sexual violence
- 25 children among the dead
These are not claims. They are documented by Ukrainian investigators, international prosecutors, journalists from dozens of countries, and satellite imagery — including Maxar Technologies imagery that showed bodies on Yablunska Street while Russian forces were still present, pre-empting any claim of Ukrainian staging.
What I witnessed
I was in Kyiv when the invasion began. The column heading for Bucha was one of several — others went for Hostomel, Moshchun, Irpin. We heard the fighting from the city. When the Russians retreated and the roads reopened, the images that came from Bucha changed everything about how this war is understood.
I began taking people to Bucha shortly after it was cleared. The first months were raw — rubble still in the streets, bullet holes in every surface, residents beginning the impossible task of returning to homes that had been occupied by soldiers. Some of those residents would stop us to talk. Many still do.
What you see on the tour
The physical evidence is still there, years on. Destroyed apartment blocks. Houses with shell damage. The memorials and crosses that mark where bodies were found on specific streets. St. Andrew’s Church, which survived — unlike many structures nearby. The tank traps that were never removed.
But more than the physical destruction, what you encounter in Bucha is the human dimension. Residents who stayed. The church volunteers who kept records. The investigators who documented each case. Their accounts reshape what “news coverage” of atrocities actually conveys.
Why this matters to witness
There is a difference between knowing that something happened and understanding it. Bucha is less than 40 minutes from central Kyiv. It is a place of ordinary residential streets, playgrounds, supermarkets. The ordinariness of it is the point.
Russia has denied, minimised, and fabricated alternative explanations for what was found there. Coming to Bucha is, among other things, a refusal to accept those denials. It is evidence in your own eyes and memory.
We also visit Hostomel — site of the famous Antonov An-225 “Mriya” aircraft, destroyed during the battle for the airfield — and the villages of Moshchun and Irpin, where some of the fiercest urban fighting of the Kyiv defence took place.
If you want to understand this war beyond the headlines, this is where you start.