Death toll in Bucha after deoccupation reaches 422 civilians, but final count still unknown – police

After the deoccupation, 422 bodies of citizens were found in Bucha, and in total, almost 1,190 bodies were found in Buchan district. However, this number is incomplete; law enforcement officers are still investigating crimes of the Russian Federation.

The deputy head of the national police and the head of the criminal police, Andrii Nebytov, said this on the national telethon air.

He stressed that approximately one thousand innocent civilians were killed by the occupying forces in violent ways – either by gunfire or by explosive mines.

Nebytov also noted that currently, 514 residents of Kyiv region are considered missing, and 180 bodies remain unidentified.

"We understand that there were positions of the Russian army around Bucha, where they took people, tortured and killed them, where we found buried bodies of the tortured. And we understand that these are probably not the last finds. Because the number of people who are currently wanted, unfortunately, is huge," said Nebytov.

The head of the criminal police also said that law enforcement officers opened 23,000 criminal proceedings regarding Russian war crimes in the Kyiv region.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war on February 24, 2022, law enforcement officers have opened 116 thousands of such proceedings.

More than a thousand Russian soldiers who invaded Bucha at the end of February 2022 were identified by the police. More than 100 invaders who directly committed war crimes have also been identified.

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On March 31, 2022, the Ukrainian military liberated Bucha and the entire Bucha community in the Kyiv region from the Russian invaders. After that, information about the atrocities of the occupiers gradually began to appear: journalists and representatives of the authorities started to publish videos and photos of the dead, who were just lying on the streets.

According to the police, Russian snipers shot people from tanks and armored personnel carriers despite the white armbands that the Russian military forced people to wear. Many Ukrainians were found dead in their houses and apartments from mine and explosive injuries. Bodies were also found in mass graves, often with traces of torture.

In March 2023, Zelensky announced that more than 1,400 people, including 37 children, had died in Bucha and the Bucha district due to the Russian occupation.

According to German intelligence, the intercepted radio messages of the Russian military about the mass killings in Bucha indicate that these were not random actions or acts of individual soldiers but a tactic or even a strategy of Russia to intimidate Ukrainians.

As reported, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, honored the memory of the murdered residents of the town of Bucha in the Kyiv region, which was liberated by Ukraine's armed forces from the Russian occupiers precisely two years ago. He thanked the Ukrainian military and everyone "who really helps us."

The head of state took part in raising the flag of Ukraine near the Memorial to the Defenders of the Bucha community and presented honorary awards to the cities – heroes of Ukraine.