The Fort Worth Press - In Bucha's morgue, autopsies begin on the victims of war

USD -
AED 3.672984
AFN 72.000284
ALL 90.14995
AMD 391.779925
ANG 1.790208
AOA 916.502819
ARS 1076.429101
AUD 1.630615
AWG 1.80125
AZN 1.70163
BAM 1.771301
BBD 2.017534
BDT 121.402308
BGN 1.78376
BHD 0.376949
BIF 2925.5
BMD 1
BND 1.345771
BOB 6.904859
BRL 5.880402
BSD 0.999221
BTN 86.74138
BWP 14.174576
BYN 3.269895
BYR 19600
BZD 2.007245
CAD 1.411125
CDF 2871.999819
CHF 0.85722
CLF 0.025831
CLP 991.240085
CNY 7.339302
CNH 7.358615
COP 4319.01
CRC 513.965367
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 101.000083
CZK 22.921032
DJF 177.719989
DKK 6.827955
DOP 62.400783
DZD 133.019752
EGP 51.664403
ERN 15
ETB 129.949732
EUR 0.91442
FJD 2.315971
FKP 0.783371
GBP 0.78351
GEL 2.755001
GGP 0.783371
GHS 15.509984
GIP 0.783371
GMD 71.498022
GNF 8654.999727
GTQ 7.706902
GYD 209.05674
HKD 7.75718
HNL 25.760226
HRK 6.861966
HTG 130.74861
HUF 370.326027
IDR 16838
ILS 3.822099
IMP 0.783371
INR 86.122699
IQD 1310
IRR 42100.000474
ISK 132.660241
JEP 0.783371
JMD 157.991976
JOD 0.708894
JPY 147.911968
KES 129.498067
KGS 87.391099
KHR 4014.999703
KMF 449.484438
KPW 900.005689
KRW 1442.995005
KWD 0.30778
KYD 0.83276
KZT 518.698635
LAK 21660.000037
LBP 89599.999805
LKR 300.787016
LRD 199.62504
LSL 18.760269
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 5.544953
MAD 9.547498
MDL 17.73656
MGA 4659.999546
MKD 56.188906
MMK 2099.508213
MNT 3514.239504
MOP 7.986198
MRU 39.850172
MUR 44.903383
MVR 15.410502
MWK 1736.999891
MXN 20.43779
MYR 4.496015
MZN 63.900812
NAD 18.75979
NGN 1570.250368
NIO 36.749797
NOK 10.836155
NPR 138.792939
NZD 1.77404
OMR 0.385025
PAB 0.99923
PEN 3.750503
PGK 4.12775
PHP 57.174499
PKR 280.702058
PLN 3.86869
PYG 7996.12375
QAR 3.6405
RON 4.551897
RSD 107.150958
RUB 86.1343
RWF 1415
SAR 3.754835
SBD 8.323254
SCR 14.354076
SDG 600.501663
SEK 9.99361
SGD 1.33961
SHP 0.785843
SLE 22.76022
SLL 20969.501083
SOS 571.500379
SRD 36.942499
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.743298
SYP 13001.930666
SZL 18.75993
THB 34.21902
TJS 10.856858
TMT 3.51
TND 3.078503
TOP 2.342102
TRY 37.978896
TTD 6.777098
TWD 32.558032
TZS 2678.74498
UAH 41.262408
UGX 3690.521473
UYU 42.837994
UZS 12975.000178
VES 73.26593
VND 25990
VUV 126.014532
WST 2.882742
XAF 593.921862
XAG 0.032497
XAU 0.000327
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.740583
XOF 598.497463
XPF 110.3947
YER 245.301313
ZAR 19.355202
ZMK 9001.203045
ZMW 28.069556
ZWL 321.999592
  • CMSC

    0.2400

    22.45

    +1.07%

  • BCC

    9.7750

    99.705

    +9.8%

  • BCE

    0.4200

    21.29

    +1.97%

  • NGG

    2.6500

    65.39

    +4.05%

  • SCS

    0.9850

    10.725

    +9.18%

  • GSK

    0.0300

    34.16

    +0.09%

  • RIO

    3.3200

    55.64

    +5.97%

  • JRI

    0.4400

    11.91

    +3.69%

  • RYCEF

    0.6800

    9.06

    +7.51%

  • CMSD

    0.2930

    22.673

    +1.29%

  • VOD

    0.3800

    8.57

    +4.43%

  • BP

    1.7200

    27.83

    +6.18%

  • RELX

    2.8000

    48.11

    +5.82%

  • AZN

    0.2350

    65.135

    +0.36%

  • RBGPF

    -7.7300

    60.27

    -12.83%

  • BTI

    0.8850

    40.435

    +2.19%

In Bucha's morgue, autopsies begin on the victims of war
In Bucha's morgue, autopsies begin on the victims of war / Photo: © AFP/File

In Bucha's morgue, autopsies begin on the victims of war

According to her death certificate, Lyudmyla Bochok, 79, was killed by a bullet to the head and the back on March 5.

Text size:

Her body was found lying on the doorstep of her home at 87, Peremogy Street in Bucha, a commuter town near Ukraine's capital Kyiv now synonymous with unspeakable war crimes committed during Russia's invasion.

Bochok's mentally handicapped sister Nina, 74, was found dead in the kitchen: she died of heart failure, according to the death certificate seen by AFP.

But her nephew Yevgen Pasternak believes she died of fright, loneliness or hunger, after the Russians executed her sister.

After two weeks of fruitlessly searching body bags and examining the corpses of dozens of elderly women, Pasternak finally found his Aunt "Lyuda" at the back of a white truck on Monday.

But he has so far been unable to locate Nina.

Around 4,000 residents found themselves trapped in Bucha as the Russians advanced.

Four hundred bodies were discovered when the Russians then withdrew again on March 31, local police chief Vitaly Lobas told AFP. Around a quarter of them are still unidentified.

"The majority died violent deaths" and were shot, Lobas says, declining to provide a concrete figure at this stage.

- Piles of body bags -

"Number 365, is that one yours?" asks a masked Ukrainian volunteer pointing to a grey body bag next to a trailer, where 12 other corpses wait for a space in Bucha's small morgue.

"Yes, it's mine," says Lyudmyla's and Nina's 44-year-old nephew, Pasternak.

"And the other one, is it yours?" continues the volunteer, in a hurry to get on.

"No, it's theirs," says Pasternak, who has been coming here looking for his aunts for weeks.

The bodies of Bucha residents who died or were killed during Russia's month-long occupation of the town started being gathered up on April 3.

Five days later, the autopsies began at the region's central morgue in nearby Bila Tserkva, where 18 French police experts have joined the team.

The coroners' findings will all contribute to the local and international investigations being carried out into possible war crimes.

In the car park of the small communal morgue, the body bags arrive in carts or piled up in trailers, vans and non-refrigerated trucks.

After being unloaded, the body bags are left on the floor, sometimes for several hours, AFP saw.

Nadia Somalenko patiently waits to collect her husband's death certificate, undeterred by the human bodies covered in plastic and the strong smell that attracts the neighbourhood's stray dogs.

- 'Bullet to the head' -

The Russians must have taken him out of the house, because they found the potatoes and onions he was peeling on the table, she said.

After waiting all morning, Nadia is finally handed the death certificate of her 61-year-old husband, Mykola. It states the cause of death as a "bullet to the head".

She says that Somalenko had refused to leave Bucha and join his wife in Kyiv, despite the fighting. He was not afraid of the Russians, Nadia says.

Lyudmyla cannot wait any longer. When a lorry enters the car park at Bucha's morgue, the small woman opens the door herself.

And despite the overwhelming stench, she frenziedly searches among the body bags for number 163.

"It's him, our son! Let me see! Let me see if it's him or not!" she begs.

Lyudmyla tries to open the cover, and her husband tries to stop her. The old man opens the zip a little, but attempts to shoo his wife away with his hand.

"My son, my little baby... that's our quilt, that's his earring, his jacket," she whispers under her FFP2 mask.

The body is raised and placed on a stained stretcher.

The sobbing mother starts to take it through the car park, breaking into a run, as if her son were simply injured and could be taken to the emergency ward for help.

She recounts how her son Artyom had first brought his wife and daughters to safety in the western city of Lviv, but then planned to return to the village of Myrotske, near Bucha, in early March to try to rescue his parents.

But he never arrived and, for a month, no one knew what had happened to him.

His decomposed body was finally found 200 metres (650 feet) away from their home, near a swamp, on April 6. His death certificate, seen by AFP, said he died of bullet wounds.

Sergiy Kaplichny, head of the funeral parlour next to the morgue, moves from one coffin to another, sporting a flashy orange sweater.

The funerals are free and include a choice of colour for the coffin, a cross with a temporary plaque, a traditional plastic garland of flowers and the presence of a priest.

Interments take place in Bucha's cemetery Number Two, located on the edge of a forest of fir trees.

- Never-ending cycle -

The bodies of three Bucha residents, executed for no apparent reason by Russian soldiers, wait to be laid to rest.

In a red coffin to the left lies Lyudmyla, assassinated on her doorstep. In the middle rests Mykola, taken away during a meal.

On the right in a black coffin is Mykhailo Kovalenko, 62, a father who was killed by a Russian sniper as he tried to escape, according to his grieving son-in-law.

A blue Lada makes its way up the cemetery path and parks by the graves, briefly interrupting the priest's prayers. Two volunteers clutching spades get out.

Four more coffins have arrived: graves must quickly be dug for them and filled up by nightfall.

It is an unending cycle of death that will inexorably start all over again the next day.

X.Silva--TFWP